Hagel two – Brandon Hagel scored twice in the third period as the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in Game 4, tying the series 2-2. Game 5 is Wednesday in Tampa.
MONTREAL — Brandon Hagel found the back of the net twice in the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in Game 4 to tie the first-round series 2-2.
The night had the feel of a reset, not just a win. After the first three games of the matchup went to overtime, Tampa Bay set a different tone by getting the job done in regulation—an adjustment that matters when playoff margins get razor-thin.
Hagel’s impact arrived late and decisively.. He opened the Lightning advantage with a goal at 4:43 left in the third. redirecting Nikita Kucherov’s shot past Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes.. Not long after. he added another score to complete the turnaround. pushing Tampa Bay ahead during a stretch when momentum can swing with every change of possession.
Jake Guentzel added a goal and an assist for the Lightning, and Kucherov finished with two assists.. On the defensive side. Andrei Vasilevskiy steadied the game with 16 saves. giving Tampa Bay the kind of goaltending support that allows a team to keep pressing even when the other side still has belief.
Montreal’s offense didn’t disappear, even as the game tilted.. The Canadiens scored twice in the second period in a 3:23 span, with Zachary Bolduc starting it at 9:54 left.. Bolduc received a long pass from Kaiden Guhle. held off Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh. and had a puck deflect in off his body as he cut across the front of the goal.
Cole Caufield then answered for Montreal.. His power-play goal at 6:31 came with Guentzel off for slashing Dobes’ glove. and Caufield redirected Nick Suzuki’s centering pass from the slot.. Caufield’s finish came after a regular season in which he scored 51 goals. and the moment gave Montreal a chance to reassert control before Tampa Bay responded again.
Tampa Bay regained traction with help from special teams.. Hagel tied the score on a power play at 1:40 in the third period, converting a centering pass from Kucherov.. The man advantage began when Oliver Kapanen was sent off for high-sticking Dominic James—an inflection point that gave the Lightning a foothold just as Montreal looked set to protect a narrow lead.
Guentzel ultimately delivered the next punch for Tampa Bay as well.. With 54 seconds remaining in the second period. he beat Dobes from the left side off a feed from defenseman J.J.. Moser to pull the Lightning to within one.. That late goal mattered because it changed how Montreal would manage the remainder of the middle frame—do you play for control. or do you play for insurance?
For Tampa Bay. the most important storyline may be how quickly the team recovered from the sting of the previous loss.. Montreal had won Friday night’s Game 3 by a one-goal margin, tied to an overtime finish from defenseman Lane Hutson.. In Game 4, the Lightning responded by sharpening their execution and refusing to let the deficit stretch into a full collapse.
For Montreal, the challenge now is that the series remains close—but the costs of momentum swings feel higher each time. Once Tampa Bay found the right run in the third, Montreal couldn’t fully slow the surge, and the Canadiens were forced to chase the game instead of dictating it.
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Tampa. setting up a critical question for both teams: will Montreal keep generating chances through power plays and quick-strike scoring. or can the Lightning sustain this level of third-period urgency on home ice?. In tight playoff matchups. the answers tend to arrive in details—faceoffs. shot lanes. and the timing of every power play.
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As the Lightning and Canadiens head into Game 5. the series feels less like a battle of styles and more like a test of who can control the late moments.. Hagel’s two-goal burst didn’t just swing the scoreboard—it rebalanced the emotional math of the matchup. and now Tampa Bay gets to carry that edge back to its own building.