How To Cheer On The Bolts As They Head To Montreal For Game 3

TAMPA, FL — After trouncing the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Amalie Arena Wednesday, the Bolts will head to Bell Centre in Montreal for Games 3 and 4 of the best-of-seven series.

Excitement among Lightning fans is mounting as the Bolts win the first two games of the series, putting them in position to win the Stanley Cup for the second straight year.

The highlight of Wednesday's game was undoubtedly Blake Coleman's goal with 1.1 seconds left in the second period.

In a post-game interview, Barclay Goodrow recalled the thoughts going through his mind as he took possession of the loose puck at center ice.

"I knew time was tight," Goodrow said. "I could hear our bench yelling 'Shoot.'"

Instead, he decided to pass it to Coleman.

"I saw Blake driving the net, so figured if I could maybe get it over to him, it probably had a better chance of going in than me trying to shoot from where I was," Goodrow said.

It proved to be the right call.

Coleman had to dive for the puck. As he was sliding down the ice on his stomach, he slipped the puck past goalie Carey Price and into the Canadiens' net.

Coleman had done this move once before when he scored a diving goal in last year's playoffs against Boston.

"Literally in my head, I'm like 'Did he just do that again?'" said Coach Jon Cooper. "Just the timing was epic."

"I knew the clock was winding down, but I saw Goodie make that heads up play in the neutral zone, a little poke past their D, and I just tried to do everything I could to give him an option," Coleman said. "Goodie couldn't have put it in a better spot. I don't know why these goals happen, but it was a big one for our team. I don't think any of us were very happy with our second period up to that point. Gave us a little bit of a boost going into the third."

It was just icing on the cake when Ondrej Palat banked a goal off Price with four minutes left in the third period to give the Bolts three goals.

While Coleman received accolades, the real pat on the back goes to Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilyevsky, universally considered the best goalie in the National Hockey League, who kept the Canadiens at bay with 42 saves.

"Tonight there were peaks and valleys in our game, but Vasy stood tall when we were down," Cooper said after the game, crediting the 26-year-old Russian-born goalie with the Bolts' record five straight wins at home for the longest playoff home win streak in the same postseason.

During the past 10 games, the Bolts have given their opponents only 13 goals.

Fans called foul when the NHL announced its award winners for the 2020-21 regular season before Game 2 ended, choosing Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury as the winner of the Vezina Trophy over Vasilevskiy.

Ryan McDonagh described Vasilevskiy as the "backbone of the team."

"Can't say enough good things about him," McDonagh said in a post-game interview. "Man, he's an absolute warrior and competitor and was probably the biggest piece of our win here tonight."

Despite the win, Cooper said the Bolts gave a lackluster performance Wednesday night.

"There were some remarkable individual performances tonight - one by Vasy and Coleman and a couple other guys," Cooper said. "But it definitely was an unremarkable team game we had going on. Vasy, we're used to seeing this from him. He definitely gave us a chance to win tonight."

How To Watch Tonight's Game

The Bolts will play in Montreal both Friday and Monday, July 5, starting at 8 p.m.

For fans, the next best thing to being there is the Bud Light away game watch parties in the Amalie Arena featuring live entertainment, appearances by Lightning mascot ThunderBug and other Lightning personalities, giveaways and concession specials.

Tickets are $10 with a portion of the proceeds benefitting Lightning Foundation Charities. Pods of one to six people are available. Doors open 75 minutes before the scheduled puck drop.

Or fans can catch the game live from home livestreamed on NHL NBC Sports, on the NHL Network and on NBCUniversal cable networks (NBCSN, USA Network and CNBC).

You can also down the NBC mobile sports apps here.

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