The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to close out a strong week before the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament when they travel to meet the Montreal Canadiens on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon in the NHL’s last match before the break.
It will be the final of three meetings between the Atlantic Division clubs. Montreal won the first two matchups — 5-2 on Dec. 29 in Tampa and 3-2 on Jan. 21 in Quebec.
A member of Team Canada who will play under coach Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay right winger Brandon Hagel will proudly display the red and white of his country. But he probably is at least slightly disappointed to see the Lightning’s hiatus.
Hagel scored the first and last markers in Saturday’s 6-3 win in Detroit, giving him six in the past five matches. He has 26 tallies, third most on the Lightning.
The franchise has seen the 26-year-old Hagel grow after acquiring him from the Chicago Blackhawks in March of 2022.
“You look at a couple of years ago when he got traded here, could you have foreseen him playing for Team Canada in 2025?” Cooper said after his group broke the Red Wings’ seven-game winning streak. “I don’t know if any of us would’ve seen that, and here he is. … The chemistry he’s formed with (Anthony) Cirelli is unique. Those two work great together.”
Brayden Point reached the 30-goal mark for third straight season and for the fifth time in his career Saturday.
Making his NHL debut, former Michigan Wolverines forward Dylan Duke scored the Lightning’s fifth goal as Tampa Bay moved to 23-1-1 when leading after two periods.
Montreal was making up ground in the wild-card standings after a 3-2 home win over Tampa Bay on Jan. 21, getting the game-winning marker from Jake Evans, who has done that in both victories over the Lightning this season and has five total thus far.
In their penultimate match before the break, Montreal was blanked 4-0 Saturday at home against New Jersey as the Devils’ Jack and Luke Hughes notched goals.
Former Habs backstop Jake Allen made 34 saves for his fourth shutout as Montreal fell to 1-6-1 in its past eight games.
Attempting to make the playoffs for the first time since the shortened 2020-21 season that ended with them losing to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, the Canadiens entered the postseason fray by earning points in eight of nine games (7-1-1) that started with a 2-1 win at the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 4.
“I’m not going to talk about that right now,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis replied recently of his club’s playoff hopes. “I get it. We had a great run. It’s a hard league. It’s very competitive, especially in the Eastern Conference right now. We’re going to fight. The focus right now is really to get back to a recipe that works.”
The Canadiens will be represented in the 4 Nations Face-Off by three members of the red, white and blue — hometown goalie Sam Montembeault for Team Canada and wingers Patrik Laine and Joel Armia for Team Finland.
Montembeault surrendered four tallies on 22 shots Saturday to lose for the fourth time in his past five starts. He fell to 18-20-3 with three shutouts in 41 games this season.
–Field Level Media
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