Hutson Habs hero as Canadiens win third straight playoff OT thriller, take 2-1 series lead

Lane Hutson was the hero on Friday night in Montreal as the Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime to take a 2-1 series lead in their first-round playoff series.

The defenceman took a feed from Alex Texier and wired home a slap shot for his second of the series at 2:09 in the overtime period.

“Honestly, that might have been my first slapshot all year,” said Hutson. “I saw some space, lots of bodies and just tried to shoot it as hard as I could, and luckily it went in.”

He then corrected a reporter’s suggestion that his game two goal was also a slapshot.

“If we’re being technical, that was a one-T (one-timer),” Hutson said with a laugh, referring to the game-tying goal set up by captain Nick Suzuki.

Suzuki chimed in after the game on his teammate’s rocket to end game three.

“I didn’t think he could shoot it that hard,” said Suzuki. “It looked like there was just everyone in front and it somehow found a way through.”

Back-and-forth shootout

Despite outshooting the Lightning 28-17 for three periods, the Habs could not find a way to pull ahead in regulation.

The Habs drew first blood early when Texier scored his first of the playoffs on a pass from Zachary Bolduc, just under five minutes after puck drop.

The packed, red-clad crowd at the Bell Centre erupted.

“There’s playoff hockey, and then there’s playoff hockey in Montreal,” forward Cole Caufield said before the game.

Lightning Brayden Point, however, silenced the crowd when he answered on the power play just under three minutes later to even the score.

Tampa Bay then pulled ahead when no. 1 Habs villain Brandon Hagel scored his fourth of the series unassisted five minutes into the second period.

Then it was much maligned Kirby Dach, who silenced a few critics when he scored his first of the series at 12:43.

He fired a snap shot through traffic from the top of the right circle that got behind goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on the short side.

Dach was pilloried after game two, and hounded so badly on social media that he shut down his Instagram account.

His lazy flip behind centre ice in overtime in game two resulted in an icing, and then he failed to cover his man on the point. That man, J.J. Moser, skated unimpeded into the faceoff circle and snapped home the winner to end that game.

“Unfortunate what happened in the previous game,” said Suzuki. “It was great to see the fans really support him tonight; they got some ‘Kirby’ chants going in the warm up. It would deifnitely make him feel really good going into the game. I thought it was his best game of the whole season.”

“I didn’t really expect it,” said Dach. “It was nice. The fans have been incredible all year and they stuck by my side through a lot, so it definitely meant a lot.”

Coach Martin St-Louis said in a news scrum the next day that he wished none of his players had social media.

Sea of white and red

With everyone in attendance getting a white rally towel, and the majority coming in red, the home crowd in the Bell Centre was amped.

The sizable group of fans watching on big screens on the street outside was equally passionate.

Former Habs great Yvan Cournoyer was at the game holding a torch prior to the game.

The 82-year-old, Drummondville native played 16 seasons with the Canadiens from 1963 to 1978, winning 10 Stanley Cups.

The pregame kicked off at 5 p.m., which included a tattoo parlour, giant torch sculpture and rivalry dunk tank.

Game 4 is Sunday night in Montreal. The Canadiens took the opener 4-3 on Sunday, and the Lightning countered 3-2 on Tuesday night, both in the first extra period.

--With files from The Associated Press.