Montreal Canadiens Move on to Round 2 After Strong Performance from Jakub Dobeš

From Stanley Cup Finalist to dead-last in the National Hockey League standings in a span of months, 2021 was an interesting year for the Montreal Canadiens and after five years, the organization is finally starting to reap the rewards to entering a full-rebuild.

Their first 100+ point season in nearly a decade set them up with a formidable opponent in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs - the Tampa Bay Lightning. Montreal and Tampa Bay had quite a few entertaining battles throughout the regular season, including an April 9th thriller that saw Cole Caufield pick up his 50th goal of the campaign, while the two clubs combined for a whopping 126 penalty minutes.

The Canadiens and Lightning split the season series at two games a piece, with Montreal winning the final two meetings, but that doesn't matter come playoff time and as soon as their first round matchup was locked in, the hockey world began submitting their predictions, with many not giving Marty St. Louis' group much of a chance due to their youth and inexperience against Jon Cooper's very experience squad. However, not much separated the two sides in the regular season as both finished with 106 points, although Tampa Bay landed home ice advantage thanks to having six more regulation wins than Montreal.

Montreal's saving grace in Game 7

Both teams split the first six games of the series, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 in Tampa Bay on Sunday night. A big opportunity awaited the Canadiens and Lightning, the former who hasn't been to the second round in five years, while the latter was seeking their first series win since the 2022 Eastern Conference Final.

Tampa Bay outshot Montreal 9-4 in the opening frame, but it was the Canadiens who led 1-0 thanks to captain Nick Suzuki, who picked the right time to score his first goal of the series. Instead of pressing for another in the second, the Canadiens played their worst period of hockey this season and were outshot 12-0. It marked the first time in Canadiens franchise history that they've gone without a shot in a period in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Lightning would equalize in the second period as Dominic James scored his second of the series. With the way the things had gone in the first six contests, there was no surprise that the two clubs were knotted up after 40 minutes and that we were looking at another game decided by one goal.

21-8 were the shots after two periods and if it wasn't for Jakub Dobeš, the Montreal Canadiens more than likely would've been staring down a second straight first round exit. Dobeš, a native of Ostrava, Czechia, stood on his head the entire game, including in the third period, giving Montreal a chance at at advancing to round 2.

A little over halfway through the third period, Alex Newhook - the lone Stanley Cup champion on Montreal's roster - was able to track the puck off the glass and banked it in off Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy to give the Canadiens their second lead of the night.

As the minutes went by, the Lightning saw their second round hopes slowly vanish and once again in a Game 7, star forward Nikita Kucherov failed to show up. In seven career Game 7s, Kucherov hasn't register any points and is a minus-two. It's certainly not ideal for a Lightning group whose window is closing.

The final buzzer sounded and the Canadiens, along with their loyal fan base, let out a big sigh of relief as they're off to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs - another big step in the organization's rebuild. The Canadiens jumped over the boards and went right to Jakub Dobeš, the team's saving grace on Sunday, stopping 28 of 29 shots.

With the victory, Jakub Dobeš entered some pretty elite company in franchise history, becoming just the fifth rookie goaltender to win a Game 7. You might be wonder, who are the other four. Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Carey Price - four of the greatest goaltenders to ever play for the Canadiens.

Now that the Tampa Bay Lightning are in their rearview mirror, Marty St. Louis and his coaching staff will now begin preparations for the team's next opponent, the Atlantic Division-winning Buffalo Sabres. It won't be an easy matchup for the Canadiens, but if the first round showed us anything, this group can get it done and if the top-six are able to get going, especially at five-on-five, there's no reason why they can't make an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final.

Buckle up, Canadiens fans. Game 1 is set for Wednesday night at 7 pm ET in Buffalo.