TAMPA, Fla. (AP) 鈥� Another home loss in the playoffs has the Tampa Bay Lightning on the brink of an early vacation once again.
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed a fluke goal on the day he was nominated for the Vezina Trophy, the Lightning struggled to win faceoffs, lucky bounces went the other way and they 3-2 on Wednesday night to fall behind 3-2 in the series.
Game 6 is Friday night in Montreal. The Lightning are trying to avoid a fourth straight first-round elimination since falling two wins short of a Stanley Cup three-peat in 2022.
鈥淲e got to drag them back here,鈥� forward Corey Perry said. 鈥淵ou know it鈥檚 going to be a hostile environment. It鈥檚 loud but block it out and just go play. We found a way last game there. We got to do it again.鈥�
The Lightning won Game 4 in Montreal but have lost 10 of their last 12 home games in the playoffs.
Alexandre Texier scored the winning goal 1:06 into the third period on a slap shot from the left circle that bounced off Vasilevskiy鈥檚 glove and trickled behind one of the NHL鈥檚 best goaltenders.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper blamed the goal on the defense.
鈥淚t stems way before that. It doesn鈥檛 stem from when Texier gets down the ice. It stems from the change and how we went about it and the mistakes we made on the way there,鈥� Cooper said. 鈥淔orever, all Vasy does is bail us out of those. The rare time sometimes he doesn鈥檛. He should鈥檝e never got that deep into our zone and he got a lot on it. It wasn鈥檛 like Vasy got beat. He had it and it took a Montreal bounce, unfortunately for us.
The Canadiens dominated the faceoff circle, winning 66%. In another tight game – all five have been decided by one goal and the first three went to overtime – every puck possession matters.
鈥淧ossession is huge,鈥� forward Brayden Point said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not a lot of room out there. Starting with the puck is massive.鈥�
The Lightning had 40 shots on rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes but only Dominic James and Jake Guentzel could get the puck past him.
They had shots hit the post, crossbar and Nikita Kucherov had the puck bounce over his stick with an open net.
鈥淲e need other guys to score and haven鈥檛 been able to do it,鈥� Point said. 鈥淚t is frustrating. Just got to keep doing the right things and keep working hard.鈥�
The Lightning have lost their last two elimination games. If they can win again in Montreal, they鈥檒l host Game 7 on Sunday.
鈥淚 understand the next game is a potential elimination game but the last game we played there, we lose that one and we鈥檙e down 3-1 (and) you鈥檙e really chasing the series,鈥� Cooper said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been in that building twice now and have a pretty good feeling of what to expect. How it鈥檚 going to go? I can鈥檛 say for sure but I鈥檒l bet we play better than we did tonight.鈥� ___
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