Overview
- Tampa Bay erased a 2-0 deficit to beat Montreal 3-2 on Sunday in Montreal, leveling the first-round series at two games each.
- Max Crozier, playing his first game of these playoffs, flattened Juraj Slafkovsky with an open-ice hit late in the second period that players and coach Jon Cooper said energized the bench.
- Jake Guentzel cut the lead with 54 seconds left in the second, Brandon Hagel tied it on a power play 1:40 into the third, and Hagel then scored the winner with 4:53 remaining off a Nikita Kucherov shot.
- Officials called 17 minor penalties in a heated game that included a debated high-sticking call on Oliver Kapanen before the tying goal and a crucial 5-on-3 kill by the Canadiens.
- Slafkovsky briefly left after the hit but returned in the third, and the series shifts to Tampa for Game 5 on Wednesday in a best-of-three finish between teams that each posted 106 regular-season points.