2021 Stanley Cup Final: 4 Takeaways from Game 2, including Coleman’s magic
There were a handful of big takeaways to digest from Game 2 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Two more wins is all the Tampa Bay Lightning now need in order to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions following their big 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday.
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It was a contest the Habs actually dominated as they outshot the Bolts 43-23, but a stellar goaltending performance from the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, coupled with one of the best postseason goals you’ll ever see by Blake Coleman, ensured that the Canadiens will head back to Montreal with a 2-0 series deficit.
This was a tough, tough loss for Montreal who made it a tied game at 10:36 in the second period after Anthony Cirelli put Tampa on the board first, with Nick Suzuki recording his sixth goal of the postseason.
Despite getting plenty of pucks on net, the Canadiens just couldn’t solve Vasilevskiy and Coleman’s sensational, diving goal with two seconds left in the second period was a body blow that the Habs couldn’t recover from.
It remained a close game in the third but a costly miscommunication between Jeff Petry and Joel Edmundson led to Ondrej Palat wrapping the game up for the Bolts, and Montreal will now need to use playing back on home ice as a motivation tool to try and get back in this series.
Before that, though, let’s go through the biggest takeaways from Game 2 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning…
4 Takeaways from Game 2 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final
4. Missed Opportunity
If the Tampa Bay Lightning go on to win the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final, then there is no doubt that the Montreal Canadiens and the rest of the hockey world will look back on Game 2 as the big turning point in the series.
After being dominated in Game 1, the Habs bounced back in a big way in Game 2 on Wednesday, playing the style of hockey that got them so far this postseason, while their intensity levels were more at the level you would expect in the heat of postseason battle.
They controlled the puck, they played solid defense, they were outstanding on the penalty kill, they were physical and they outshot the Lightning 43-23, creating a plethora of high-danger scoring chances and getting plenty of traffic to the net.
However, there was one big problem and that problem was called Andrei Vasilevskiy, who absolutely stood on his head with 42 saves, coming up huge in the game’s most important moments and he was the reason Tampa Bay won that game to take a 2-0 series lead.
Costly mistakes also defined Game 2 for Montreal as Carey Price let a Anthony Cirelli shot get through him in the second period, while Joel Edmundson’s errant pass allowed Ondrej Palat to score the game-deciding goal.
You can’t make those kind of mistakes and expect to be successful in the postseason, and you also need to win when you are that dominant. If the Habs do go on to lose, then they will look back on Game 2 with plenty of regret given that it was there for the taking for them.