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Lightning look to ‘go for the jugular,’ grab 3-0 series lead on Habs

Lightning look to ‘go for the jugular,’ grab 3-0 series lead on Habs

The Tampa Bay Lightning know exactly how the Montreal Canadiens feel right now.

A year ago, the Lightning dropped the opening two games at home in their first-round series against the Canadiens. They headed to Montreal ‘not dead to rights yet,’ as defenseman Matt Carle put it then, and despite losing goaltender Ben Bishop, felt they could turn things around.

They didn’t, and Montreal won a pair of one-goal games to complete the sweep.

Ahead of Game 3 Wednesday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa, the Lightning know what kind of Canadiens team they will see. They will likely have to weather a first period storm from a Montreal side desperate not to be facing elimination Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the Lightning know how they need to start. Just look at Game 3 a year ago when Rene Bourque gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead 11 seconds into the first period.

Experience could be beneficial for the Lightning in Wednesday’s Game 3.

“For us, although we’ve got the 2-0 lead, that’s where we’d take a page out of Montreal’s from last year,” said Cooper. “They had the 2-0 lead going back home and they didn’t take their foot off the gas. They kept it going. They scored on us 11 seconds into Game 3. That’s keeping your foot on the gas. So that’s something that’s been talked about in our locker room is we’ve got to go for the jugular here when we’ve got the chance.”

Through two games, it’s already been an eventful series. Game 1 featured Nikita Kucherov’s no-goal in the first overtime and later his (good) game-winner in the second overtime. Game 2 and the following two off-days were all about Brandon Prust’s comments toward referee Brad Watson.

Montreal has carried the possession for the series (57.4-percent Fenwick to Tampa’s 42.6-percent, per War on Ice), but the Canadiens have taken six more penalties and the Lightning have taken advantage, as shown by their four power play goals in Game 2.

“We’ve played some pretty good games here so far and got ourselves a lead,” said Tampa defenseman Anton Stralman, “and now it’s just a matter of how we take care of it. We’ve got a big chance to take another step and [we] won’t let it slip away.”

Even with Montreal on their heels and facing the daunting prospect of a 3-0 series deficit, the Lightning realize that there’s still plenty of hockey left to play.

“It’s still a race to four, and until you get to four what have you really done?,” said Cooper.

The Canadiens plan to be more disciplined here on out and would like to capitalize on their own power play chances (0-for-6 in the series). It’s also vital they take advantage of their 5-on-5 possession dominance, though who knows what kind of series it would be had a couple of hit posts been goals for instead.

But, you’ve got to stay positive, right Michel Therrien?

“The good thing is we’re due,” he joked on Tuesday. “That’s the way I see it.”

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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