The NHL makes a last-minute change to Game 7 between the Canadiens and Lightning
Martin St-Louis and Gage Goncalves now sit at the center of everything as the Montreal Canadiens head to Tampa for Game 7 on Sunday at 6 p.m.
That start time matters right away.
Most fans expected the usual 7:00 p.m. window for a playoff game like this, but Elliotte Friedman confirmed the decider will instead open an hour earlier.
It changes the feel of the night, and it adds another wrinkle to a game that already carries enough pressure on its own.
Tampa Bay forced this final showdown with a 1-0 overtime win Friday at the Bell Centre.
The Canadiens were one shot away from ending the series at home. Instead, they’re packing for one more flight and one more test.
The road has already given the Canadiens a path in round one
Gage Goncalves was the one who pushed this series to the limit.
He jumped on a rebound in overtime and beat Jakub Dobes, giving the Lightning the only goal they needed and silencing a building that was ready to erupt.
That’s the hard part for Montreal.
The Canadiens did enough to stay in the fight, but in a game that tight, one loose puck in the crease changed the entire story of the series.
Now the pressure shifts back to Tampa, and that’s where the Canadiens can still draw something real from this matchup.
They’ve already won 2 road games in this series, including a 4-3 overtime win in Game 1 and a 3-2 win in Game 5.
That matters because it shows this team can settle itself in a hostile rink and still play with enough structure to survive a heavy push.
For a young group, that’s not a small detail.
The flight out of Montreal brings a level of tension these players haven’t felt before, and Sunday’s puck drop will test their composure as much as their talent.
This is the kind of night that changes how a team is viewed.
One side moves on to the second round. The other heads into summer.
For the Canadiens, that’s the whole opportunity now. They don’t need a perfect story. They need their best road game of the season.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 1, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Gage Goncalves | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | 1 | - | 1 | |
| David Pastrnak | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Smith | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kailer Yamamoto | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Hagel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Dominic James | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaedan Korczak | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||