Tampa Bay and Montreal meet again Sunday night with the first-round series hanging in the balance, and the Lightning need a response at Bell Centre. Game 4 is set for 7 p.m. ET on April 26 in Montréal, QC, where the Canadiens hold a 2-1 lead after three straight one-goal games decided in overtime.
Montreal opened the series with a 4-3 overtime win, Tampa Bay answered with a 3-2 overtime victory, and the Canadiens took Game 3 by the same 3-2 score in overtime. The pattern has left little margin for error, and Tampa Bay goes into Game 4 looking to even the matchup before the series shifts again.
Brandon Hagel has been Tampa Bay’s sharpest finisher so far, with four goals and one assist for five points, while Jake Guentzel has five assists and no goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy has gone 1-2 with an.880 save percentage in his two starts in the series, a number that stands out in a matchup built on tight defensive shifts and late-game swings.
The numbers leading into the game suggest Tampa Bay can still lean on history for a little confidence. The Lightning went 2-2-0 against Montreal in the 2025-26 regular season, beating the Canadiens 6-1 on Dec. 9 and 5-4 in a shootout on Dec. 28, but also losing 4-1 in March and 2-1 in April. Tampa Bay is 13-9 all-time against Montreal in the playoffs and 5-5 in playoff games on the road.
That history includes one familiar problem for Montreal: Nikita Kucherov. He is Tampa Bay’s all-time playoff scoring leader against the Canadiens with 11 goals and 6 assists for 17 points in 16 games, and Vasilevskiy has been steadier overall in past postseason meetings, going 5-3-0 with a.917 career save percentage across six playoff starts against Montreal.
The projected lineup from Friday had Gage Goncalves, Brayden Point, Kucherov, Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, Guentzel, Zemgus Girgensons, Yanni Gourde, Nick Paul, Corey Perry, Dominic James and Scott Sabourin among the forwards, with JJ Moser, Darren Raddysh, Ryan McDonagh, Erik Cernak, Declan Carlile and Emil Lilleberg on defense. Vasilevskiy and Jonas Johansson were the goaltenders listed.
The clean read is simple: Tampa Bay has already shown it can beat Montreal, but it has not yet found a way to do it consistently in this series. Game 4 is the chance to correct that before the Canadiens can turn one more overtime night into a larger advantage.
