By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times
The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1, in Game 7 on Sunday night. Montreal will face the Buffalo Sabers in the second round.
Jakub Dobes becomes the fifth rookie goaltender in the Canadiens franchise history to win a Game 7. Dobes had a phenomenal series. We are seeing a young talent who has gotten better in each game of the series. In Game 7, he put his team on his back by making stop after stop at the net. Dobes didn’t look nervous in the big moment. All we saw was his calmness and focus.
The Canadiens-Lightning series will go down as one of the classic playoff matchups. The first three games of the series went to overtime. It’s only the third team in hockey history that every game of the series resulted in one goal. That’s the magic of how good this series turned out to be. Both very good teams are giving it all their best.
The first goal of the game for the Canadiens in Game 7 was huge in the first period. It happened on a tip-in shot by Nick Suzuki, which was his first goal of the series. After Dominic James tied the game in the second period, Alex Newhook scored the go-ahead goal to put the Canadiens on top in the third period. It’s Newhook’s first goal of the series as well.
Montreal only generated nine shots on goal, which is insane.
Canadiens head coach Martin St Louis secured one of the biggest wins of his career. A part of him must be feeling awkward because he did it against a team he played for 13 seasons. St. Louis won a Stanley Cup championship in 2004 with the Lightning and was named the NHL’s most valuable player that season.
Montreal found a smart strategy to get the job done. Dobes beating a great goaltender like Andrei Vasilevskiy is a big deal to have on your resume.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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