{"id":10295,"date":"2026-04-20T04:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betting.ca\/news\/?p=10295"},"modified":"2026-04-20T10:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:12:22","slug":"montreal-canadiens-edge-tampa-bay-lightning-4-3-in-overtime-thriller-opener-of-first-round-2026-nhl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betting.ca\/news\/montreal-canadiens-edge-tampa-bay-lightning-4-3-in-overtime-thriller-opener-of-first-round-2026-nhl-playoffs","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Edge Lightning 4-3 in OT Thriller Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"380\" height=\"250\" src=\"http:\/\/www.betting.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/juraj-slafkovsky-celebrates-after-sealing-overtime-win-in-game-1-first-round-nhl-playoffs-2026-against-the-tampa-bay-lightning.jpg\" alt=\"Juraj Slafkovsky celebrates after sealing overtime win in Game 1 First Round NHL Playoffs 2026 against the Tampa Bay Lightning\" class=\"wp-image-10296\" style=\"width:300px\" title=\"Montreal Canadiens Edge Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Overtime Thriller Opener of First Round 2026 NHL Playoffs\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Juraj Slafkovsky scored three times, including the overtime winner, to seal Game 1 for the Montreal Canadiens.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Martin St. Louis\u2019 side edged the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in a tight playoff opener.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lightning\u2019s playoff struggles continue as the team looks to avoid another early exit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Juraj Slafkovsky<\/strong>\u2019s performance on Sunday night stood out, with the 22-year-old <strong>scoring his third power-play goal just 1:22 into overtime<\/strong>, giving the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the first-round <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betting.ca\/hockey\/nhl\">2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"slafkovsky-capped-the-night\">Slafkovsky Capped the Night<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Slovak player fired a slap shot from the left circle, defeating Andrei Vasilevskiy to the far side for the hat trick and capping a night where he proved decisive at key moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Josh Anderson<\/strong> also scored once and had a second goal ruled out midway through the second period after video review determined his stick was above the crossbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rookie goaltender <strong>Jakub Dobes\u2019s 20 saves steadied the team<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tampa Bay\u2019s Brandon Hagel scored twice. Darren Raddysh added another in a game that stayed tight from start to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Canadiens struck first, with their fourth line opening<\/strong> the scoring in the first period. Anderson flipped a top-shelf shot into an open net to make it 1-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tampa Bay responded in the second, with Raddysh tying it before Hagel quickly made it 2-1 just 29 seconds later after picking up a loose puck near the crease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Slafkovsky brought Montreal level late in the second<\/strong>, finishing a precise pass from Ivan Demidov. He then gave his team a 3-2 lead in the third, only for Hagel to answer with a power-play goal, a tip-in off a pass from Jake Guentzel, to tie it 3-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That set the stage for overtime, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/_slafkovsky_\/\">Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a> sealed the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">NOTRE ROI SLOVAQUE \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddf0 <br><br>OUR SLOVAK KING<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoHabsGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GoHabsGo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Loq2CNQ3aJ\">pic.twitter.com\/Loq2CNQ3aJ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; x &#8211; Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/2046033479041683481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 20, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"montreal-chasing-its-first-stanley-cup-in-over-three-decades\">Montreal, Chasing Its First Stanley Cup in Over Three Decades&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The result adds further pressure on <strong>Tampa Bay, which has now lost its eight home playoff game<\/strong> and has also been <strong>eliminated in the first round in each of the past three seasons<\/strong> after falling short of a three-peat in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Montreal, coached by Martin St. Louis, is chasing its first Stanley Cup since 1993 and its first playoff series win since 2021, when Tampa Bay defeated them in the Final.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.betting.ca\/hockey\/odds\">Game 2<\/a> is set for Tuesday night, April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: Juraj Slafkovsky\u2019s performance on Sunday night stood out, with the 22-year-old scoring his third power-play goal just 1:22 into overtime, giving the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the first-round 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Slafkovsky Capped the Night The Slovak player fired a slap shot from [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,16,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-sports","category-usa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Canadiens Edge Lightning 4-3 in OT Thriller Opener<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Juraj Slafkovsky\u2019s hat-trick during the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday led to his team\u2019s victory.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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