Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens face-off for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Round 2 best-of-seven series live from the Bell Centre in Montreal as part of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Tampa Bay won two straight games to edge out the Detroit Red Wings in seven contests in the opening round while Montreal went up 3-0 on the Ottawa Senators, but lost two straight games before closing them out in six.
These two teams met in last year's Stanley Cup playoffs in Round 1 where the Canadiens swept the Lightning in four games. Tampa Bay responded by taking all five meetings from Montreal in the regular season this year and outscored it 21-8.
This game can be live streamed for free here.
Ben Bishop wasn't between the pipes due to injury during last year's series sweep, but he went 5-0-0 against Montreal in the 2014-15 regular season. Tampa Bay won two games in Montreal this season after dropping two games at Bell Centre last postseason.
"He's a really good goalie but we all understand that they dominated us during the regular season," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said via NHL.com. "We're probably the only team that got home-ice advantage that are the underdog. But one thing, we understand as a group that the regular season is one thing, and the playoffs, it's another season."
Bishop allowed 13 goals on 166 shots and played to a 4-3 playoff record with a 1.87 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage in Round 1.
The Canadiens have a quality goaltender of their own in the blue paint as Carey Price, who led the league in wins, GAA and save percentage in the regular season, is a finalist for the Vezina and Hart Trophies.
Price stopped 12 of the 198 shots he faced in Round 1 and went 4-2 with a 1.94 GAA and a .939 save percentage.
Montreal has been off since clinching last Sunday while Tampa Bay is playing on two days rest after ousting the Red Wings 2-0 in Game 7 on Wednesday.
"We play every other day during the regular season," Ryan Callahan told NHL.com. "So this shouldn't be anything new to us."
Tyler Johnson had a huge season offensively for the Lightning in Round 1, tying for the NHL playoff lead with six goals and leading the team with seven points. Johnson had three multi-goal games in the series.
Alex Killorn (two goals, two assists) was the only other Tampa Bay player to have more than one point in the series while Nikita Kucherov (four helpers) notched four points.
Captain Steven Stamkos (three assists) failed to find the back of the net in Round 1 and has an eight-game goal drought dating back to the regular season heading into the series.
P.K. Subban paced the Canadiens with four points off of a goal and three assists against the Senators while Dale Weise and Max Pacioretty, who missed Game 1, each had two tallies for Montreal in the series.
The puck drops on Round 2 for the Lightning and Canadiens live tonight from the Bell Centre in Montreal as part of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
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