The Montreal Canadiens stayed alive in the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 win in overtime in Game 4, avoiding a sweep and sending the series with the Tampa Bay Lightning back to Florida for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Miss any of the game? We’re here with the top takeaways.
Canadiens’ penalty kill comes through in overtime thriller.
Player of the game: Josh Anderson, F, Montreal Canadiens
Anderson opened and closed the scoring in Game 4, tallying the game-winner — his fifth goal of the playoffs — at 3:57 of overtime. The Canadiens scrambled their lines for the game, and may have found something special in Anderson’s trio with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.
What worked for Montreal?
Playing for survival brought out the best in the Canadiens. They were dogged and physical, playing a game that was equal parts fast and brutal. They were, for the most part, solid in front of Carey Price. Did they make the kinds of mistakes that led to Lightning goals for the fourth straight game? Sure. But they also won the special teams battle, keeping the best power play in the postseason off the board in 10 minutes of man advantage. They bent at times in the game, but they didn’t break, and they live to play another day.
What didn’t work for Tampa Bay?
Too many missed opportunities to put the Canadiens away. Those powerless power plays. Shots that rang off the goal cage. Their top two lines kept off the score sheet, despite some great looks. There isn’t going to be a lot of panic here with the series still 3-1 in their favor. But they just threw their opponent a lifeline — an opponent that’s already rallied from one significant deficit in this postseason.
The goals
Montreal 1-0: Josh Anderson (Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield) | 15:39, first period
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
Everything that hadn’t been going right for Montreal went right on this play. The Lightning were caught in a bad change, the kind of mistake they’d avoided this series. Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme mixed up his lines to get more offense, and got the first point of the series out of Anderson thanks to another immaculate play by Suzuki. He waited out a sliding David Savard and found Anderson for the quick shot that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for the critical first goal of the game and his fourth of the playoffs.
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
What a sequence for McDonagh. He breaks up a Jeff Petry outlet pass to keep the puck in the Canadiens’ zone. He goes right to the net where Price kicked out a Coleman shot on goal. McDonagh outworked Petry for the rebound and sent a perfect backhand pass to Goodrow for an open-net goal, his second of the playoffs. Incredible work that gave the Lightning new life.
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
Two more additions to the Canadiens’ lineup pay dividends. Evans, who hadn’t played since Game 1, passing the puck to Romanov, the rookie, sent a shot that beat Vasilevskiy thanks to a well-timed screen from Artturi Lehkonen. It was Romanov’s first career goal. He becomes the youngest defenseman in Canadiens history to score a goal in the Stanley Cup Final.
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
The Lightning responded with a goal generated by their fourth line, and Montreal continued its series-long tradition of turning the puck over for Tampa Bay goals. This time it was Tyler Toffoli being unable to keep the puck in the attacking zone, allowing Joseph to skate out with the puck on a 2-on-1. Romanov made a rookie mistake in allowing the pass to get through, and Maroon tallied his second goal in the postseason to knot the game up.
Montreal 3-2: Josh Anderson (Cole Caufield) | 3:57, overtime
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0:37
Josh Anderson’s overtime goal gives the Canadiens a 3-2 win over the Lightning in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
After the Canadiens killed off the double-minor against Shea Weber, they found new life in the Stanley Cup Final on Anderson’s second goal of the night. Full marks to Anderson on this play, as his speedy skating down left wing set up the play, his one-handed pass to Caufield created a chance and his quick tap of the puck past Vasilevskiy before defenseman Jan Rutta could recover gave Montreal the win.
Quote of the night
“We understood the hole that we were in, but we just kind of talked about it. Find a way to win one game here, really simplify your mindset. It’s going to be the same thing next game. Put this one behind us as soon as we leave the rink and come with that same mentality and win one hockey game. We’ve kind of been through this already in the first round against Toronto. You really simplify that mindset, and hopefully you get to fight one more day.”
Montreal’s penalty kill had an incredible night, although on a few chances it also got a friendly bounce off a goal post. The turning point of the game was when Weber high-sticked Ondrej Palat, cutting him and giving Tampa Bay a four-minute power play at 18:59 of the third period. But Montreal disrupted and shut down that power play, with a couple key stops from Price, and then won the game moments later.
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
It doesn’t get much closer than Nikita Kucherov here, redirecting the puck right off the iron with Price’s net wide open. That was one of three great chances that deflected off the post for the Lightning in Game 4. “We really turned up our game. We had chances to end that sucker in regulation,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
With due respect to Weber, who tried to end Brayden Point on a few of his hits in Game 4, this sonic boom in back of the net by Anderson on Victor Hedman — a rather large person — was most memorable.
— Here’s Your Replay ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) July 6, 2021
This is the benefit of having the sumo suit gimmick in the Stanley Cup Final. Instead of two people shuffling around the ice in their shoes, we have full on sumo wrestlers on skates during the intermission.
Stat of the night
Maybe we should have seen this coming. Vince Masi of ESPN Stats & Information notes that the Canadiens are the third straight team to win Game 4 when down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final since the last sweep in 1998. The Canadiens have also won Game 4 when down 3-0 in a series in seven of 12 instances.
The big question for Game 5: Is this the mayor of Tampa’s fault?
So Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is either going to look like a mastermind or someone who angered the Hockey Gods and ruined the Lightning’s good vibes. She said on Sunday that “what we would like is for the Lightning to take it a little bit easy, to give the Canadiens just the smallest break, allow them to win one at home, and then bring it back to the Amalie Arena for the Final and the winning of the Stanley Cup.”
Well, they allowed them to win one at home. If the Lightning don’t close this thing out in Game 5, this is going to be a legendary mush.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
