Home HOCKEY NHL Power-Play Masterclass: Slafkovsky Nets Hat Trick, OT Winner for Canadiens

Power-Play Masterclass: Slafkovsky Nets Hat Trick, OT Winner for Canadiens

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Power-Play Masterclass: Slafkovsky Nets Hat Trick, OT Winner for Canadiens
Canadiens beat Lightning 

Slafkovsky became the first player in playoff history with three power-play goals and an OT winner in Montreal’s 4-3 Game 1 win vs Tampa. 


Game 1 went to the Habs 4-3 in OT. Slafkovsky had all three Montreal PPG, including the winner, for the first playoff OT game this year...


Montreal Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky completed a hat trick on Sunday, scoring the overtime game-winner to take Game 1 from the Tampa Bay Lightning.


Slafkovsky scored three of the Habs’ four goals in the 4-3 win, the first overtime game of this year’s playoffs. Five of the game’s seven goals came on the power play, with four straight to close out the contest.


He led all skaters with an 8.8 player rating for the game after becoming the first player in playoff history to score three power-play goals and the overtime game-winner.

  
It was the first game in the modern era where the NHL saw a Stanley Cup Finals rematch in the first round of the playoffs. Montreal and Tampa previously met in the 2021 finals.


After the Lightning came out firing right after puck drop, it was still the Habs who got on the board first.

 
Josh Anderson got the puck wide open in front of the net and wristed it past Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it 1-0.


He is one of six Canadiens players who faced Tampa when the two teams met in the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals.


Tampa Bay failed to convert on both of their power plays in the first period, despite outshooting the Habs 9-4.






Brandon Hagel received a two-minute minor for interference on Montreal’s Kaiden Guhle.


But Tampa entered the second period on their third man-advantage of the game after Guhle was whistled for a double-minor for hooking Brayden Point in the same incident.

 
Both teams had two players each in the penalty box within the first minute of the second period after Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov was given a two-minute minor for high-sticking, forcing a 4-on-4 for a minute before the Canadiens had a brief 5-on-4 power play.

 
Neither team capitalized on any of their opportunities to start the period, but that quickly changed halfway through.


After an overturned goal call that kept the Habs at one on the scoreboard, Anderson committed back-to-back minor penalties, giving the Lightning perfect opportunities to tie it.


Darren Raddysh slapped one home on the power play to tie it up before teammate Brandon Hagel gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead just 29 seconds later.

  
Both goals were assisted by Jake Guentzel, who recorded the fastest two points in franchise playoff history.


Anthony Cirelli committed his first penalty of the game for interference on Slafkovsky, who got his revenge shortly after.


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Slafkovsky scored his second power-play goal of the game to give the Habs a 3-2 lead just six minutes into the third period.






He became the first Habs player since Thomas Vanek in 2014 to score two power-play goals in a playoff game.

  
But another power play meant another Lightning goal to tie it all back up.




Hagel scored his second of the game to make it 3-3 with 11:02 left in the third. It marked the third assist of the game for Guentzel and the second for Nikita Kucherov.

  


Guentzel became just the second player in Lightning history with three assists in a playoff-opening game, the first being Victor Hedman in 2021.


With 20.5 seconds left in the third, Guentzel was whistled for a minor for the game's fourth high-sticking penalty.

  
After not scoring in the remaining regulation time, the Habs went into OT with 1:40 left on the power play.

  
And who else but Slafkovsky to score the game-winner and complete the hat trick.




He became just the third player in Montreal Canadiens history to complete a playoff hat trick with an overtime goal, joining Eric Desjardins (1993 Stanley Cup Finals) and Gerry Plamondon (1949 Stanley Cup Finals).


Slafkovsky also became the first Canadiens player since Rene Bourque (2014) to record a playoff hat trick, while scoring the second-fastest overtime playoff goal in franchise history since Nick Suzuki (2021).






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