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Stanley Cup Final Game 3 takeaways: Tampa Bay Lightning one win away from the Cup - ESPN

11:43 PM ET

The Tampa Bay Lightning moved within one victory of back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, with an emphatic 6-3 win at the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 on Friday night.

Miss any of the game? We're here with the top takeaways.

More: Cup Final schedule | Playoff Central

Stanley Cup Final Game 3 in 10 words or fewer

Lightning strike first and then just keep striking.

What a performance for the gritty center. Johnson pulled double duty for the second straight game, skating with Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli on the second line in place of the injured Alex Killorn, while moonlighting in his usual spot on the fourth line. He scored two critical goals in the game, including the knockout blow in the third period on a great individual effort.

It's amazing to think that he was placed on waivers twice by the Lightning this season, in the hopes that someone would claim his contract, because they were so capped-strapped. No one did. Bet they're pretty happy about that now.

What worked for Tampa Bay?

The Lightning are doing to the Canadiens what the Canadiens did to their previous three opponents: forcing them into mistakes, making them pay for them and then relying on an All-World goalie to clean up their own errors. It's just that when the Lightning execute this game plan, their unmatched depth of talent just makes it look so overwhelming. "We made too many mistakes. And they make you pay cash on those mistakes," said Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme.

What didn't work for Montreal?

Once again, scoring the first goal mattered most: Tampa Bay is now 15-2 in the playoffs when doing so, while Montreal dropped to 1-6 when they don't. But increasingly, the story of the series is Andrei Vasilevskiy bailing out the Lightning when they get in trouble, while Carey Price has not done so for the Canadiens. Price has an .835 save percentage in the series and has allowed 13 goals in three games. "I can definitely play better. It's just not good enough so far," Price said.

The goals

Tampa Bay 1-0: Jan Rutta (Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman) | 1:52, first period

An auspicious start for the Canadiens. An icing call allowed Lightning coach Jon Cooper to get the matchup he wanted: His top line against that of Jesperi Kotkaniemi. The key to the goal was Hedman keeping the puck in the zone when Montreal had an easy clear. The Lightning cycled, Hedman made a nifty backhand pass to Palat who sent the puck across the blue line to Rutta. He sailed a shot past Price's right shoulder for his second goal of the playoffs, and the Lightning were off to the races.

Tampa Bay 2-0 (power play): Hedman (Nikita Kucherov, Cirelli) | 3:27, first period

Soon after the first goal, Eric Staal made a critical error. His delay-of-game penalty for sending the puck over the glass gave Tampa Bay the chance to double their lead on the power play, and they seized the moment thanks to some stunningly passive penalty killing from the Canadiens. Hedman had about a week and a half to tee up his shot from the point, and Cirelli was allowed to screen Price unabated. This was the best penalty-kill unit in the playoffs by a significant margin, and it looked pedestrian here.

Montreal 1-2: Phillip Danault (Shea Weber) | 11:16, first period

The Canadiens got a friendly bounce on a kick save by Price and then got a partial odd-man rush the other way. This goal was a product of two factors: Brendan Gallagher absolutely motoring past David Savard to give Danault a passing option that Vasilevskiy had to worry about; and then just a ripper of a shot from Danault to cut the Tampa Bay lead in half with his first goal of the playoffs. That's the kind of play you remember during free agency, as Danault is an unrestricted free agent this offseason. "We got that quick start and then I think they kind of took over for the rest of the first, but we were able to come out with the lead. So it was a good start, and I think we set the tone, but we got better in the second period and were more consistent with our play," Hedman said.

Tampa Bay 3-1: Kucherov (Palat, Erik Cernak) | 1:40, second period

The Canadiens had such a terrible line change that they actually had seven skaters on the ice when Cernak hit Palat with a perfect outlet pass for a 2-on-0 breakaway on Price. The end result was just nasty: Palat chased the puck down and sent a perfectly timed pass to Kucherov's back hand, and he wasn't going to miss from the doorstep.

Tampa Bay 4-1: Tyler Johnson (Mathieu Joseph, Savard) | 3:33, second period

Cooper made a tweak to his fourth line here, as Tyler Johnson -- who skated with the second line due to Killorn's injury -- took a shift here with his usual line. That's not too odd, because he skated with both lines last game, but this was a noteworthy trio because Johnson would typically skate in place of Mathieu Joseph on the line with Pat Maroon and Ross Colton. Instead, he skated with Joseph, and boy did they skate well. Savard made a brilliant pass to break Joseph out on a 2-on-1. He took a shot that Price saved, and then he made a pass with his back foot worthy of Euro 2020, kicking the puck to Johnson for the layup. A humbling goal for Montreal, scored just 1:53 after Kucherov's.

Montreal 2-4: Nick Suzuki (Petry, Caufield) | 18:04, second period

Hey, turns out Vasilevskiy is human after all. The Lightning goalie gave up one of his softer goals of the playoffs here, but credit Suzuki with a burst of speed through the neutral zone that allowed him to find the open ice to take this low shot that fooled the best goalie in the world and cut the deficit to two goals before the third period.

Tampa Bay 5-2: Johnson (Unassisted) | 15:19, third period

Johnson scores a huge insurance goal. Montreal defenseman Erik Gustafsson tried to make an outlet pass that was intercepted by Johnson at the red line. He sped up into the Montreal zone and shot the puck on Price, who fought it off. But Gustafsson and Ben Chariot did little to prevent a follow-up chance, and Johnson scored his second of the game. "I know how fun it was last year when we won, so we want to do that again. Don't know how many chances you're going to get. Anytime you get this close, you really feel it. I think winning last year makes you even want to win it more," Johnson said.

Montreal 3-5: Corey Perry (Brendan Gallagher, Chariot) | 15:58, third period

Just a reminder that Perry has 386 career goals in the NHL, including a 50-goal season to his credit. A fantastic shot from the veteran winger to briefly give the Canadiens some hope late in Game 3.

Tampa Bay 6-3 (empty net): Blake Coleman (Barclay Goodrow) | 16:48, third period

The checking line puts it away, as Coleman scores his third of the playoffs and second with two hands on his stick.

Math of the night

Quebec public health authorities denied a request by the Canadiens to increase the capacity of Bell Centre from 3,500 to around 10,500 fans for Games 3 and 4. But, uh, it sure looked like they had a few more than 3,500 fans in the house for Game 3. Maybe they snuck in a back door, or perhaps some fans stood on one another's shoulders while wearing a long trench coat. You know, the classics.

Crash of the night

Scary moment for the Lightning as Game 2 hero Coleman missed a check on Montreal defenseman Joel Edmundson and crashed hard onto the boards. He was on the ice in discomfort for a few moments before leaving for the trainers' room. Tampa Bay breathed a sigh of relief as a key member of their checking line returned to the game later in the period.

Weirdness of the night

In another chapter of "Corey Perry's momentous on-ice existence," Hedman tried to use his stick to defend the Canadiens' winger, and ended up getting his stick caught in Perry's skate. He threw up his hands in ... befuddlement, maybe? Credit Perry with some graceful skating despite having a stick stuck in his skate.

Fan of the night

Narrator: "It wasn't."

Quote of the night

"We believe we can play against these guys. We've believed it since Game 1. We just haven't shown it enough -- not for a full 60 minutes. We've had sparks where everything we've talked about, everything we've done has worked, but there's just been mistakes in our game and we're playing too good of a hockey team. They're deep everywhere. They're going to make you pay."

-- Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher

Stat of the night

Congratulations to Victor Hedman for setting this extraordinarily odd and specific record. One that we hope the NHL never again has a reason to see broken.

The big question from Game 3: Is the series over?

The Canadiens returned home after an admirable effort in Game 2. They got their coach, Ducharme, back from the COVID-19 protocols. But in a critical game, they made a series of mistakes and didn't get it done. Tampa Bay is 14-0 after losses in the playoffs going back to the beginning of the 2020 playoffs. The Canadiens now have to beat them in four straight games. That's quite a hill to climb.

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