(Reuters) – The defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-3 on Friday to take a commanding 3-0 series lead in the National Hockey League’s best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final.
Tyler Johnson scored a pair of goals while Jan Rutta, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov and Blake Coleman also tallied as the Lightning moved one win away from becoming only the third back-to-back Stanley Cup champions in the last quarter-century.
Tampa Bay took control early as Rutta and Hedman each scored less than four minutes into the game, and while Phillip Danault responded for Montreal near the midway mark of the first period it did little to slow down the potent Lightning.
The visitors made another fast start to the second period where Johnson and Kucherov scored less than four minutes into the middle frame to build a 4-1 cushion.
Nick Suzuki gave Montreal a glimmer of hope when he stormed down the right wing late in the second period and used a quick release to send a shot under Andrei Vasilevskiy’s leg.
A turnover led to Johnson’s second of the night with under five minutes to play and while Montreal’s Corey Perry responded 39 seconds later Coleman put the game away with an empty-net goal after the Canadiens removed their goalie for an extra attacker.
While a series comeback is not impossible, the odds are heavily stacked against a Montreal team whose hopes of ending Canada’s 28-year Stanley Cup drought are on thin ice.
Only four teams in NHL history have rallied back to win a playoff series after trailing 3-0 and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs are the only team to do it in a Stanley Cup Final.
The Lightning will get their first chance to close out the NHL’s championship series on Monday in Montreal.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; editing by Jane Wardell)
