Game

Canadiens at Lightning

Lightning 5, Canadiens 4 in a shootout · first star Nikita Kucherov (2 G, 0 A).

2025-26 regular season · Preseason. The 2026-27 regular season starts Sep 29. Data as of September 28, 2026, source NHL.

Montreal Canadiens 4 at Tampa Bay Lightning 5

Canadiens MTL

4 FINAL/SO 5

Lightning TBL

Sunday, December 28, 2025 · 5:00 PM ET · Benchmark International Arena, Tampa

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	1OT	SO	T	SOG
Canadiens	0	0	4	0	0	4	35
Lightning	0	3	1	0	1	5	21

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Canadiens attack left, Lightning attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so a mark in a team's own end would be an attempt logged from there (none in this game). Boxscore shots on goal: MTL 35, TBL 21.

MTL in red TBL in blue goal shot on goal missed blocked Canadiens 35 shots on goal (4 goals, 25 missed, 26 blocked) attacking left; Lightning 21 shots on goal (4 goals, 13 missed, 13 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	MTL SOG	MTL G	MTL ATT	TBL SOG	TBL G	TBL ATT
1st	11	0	24	3	0	7
2nd	6	0	18	12	3	23
3rd	16	4	40	5	1	15
OT	2	0	4	1	0	2
Total	35	4	86	21	4	47

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	MTL SOG	MTL G	TBL SOG	TBL G
Even strength	32	4	19	4
Power play	3	0	1	0
Short-handed	0	0	1	0

Attempt share by period

Canadiens took 64.7% of the shot attempts, and 63.5% of the 104 attempts taken at 5-on-5. An attempt is a goal, a shot on goal, a miss or a blocked shot; CF% is the share of them belonging to the Lightning and FF% their share of the ones that were not blocked, so the Canadiens hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Canadiens at Lightning
Period	TBL CF%	TBL FF%
1st	22.6	20.0
2nd	56.1	54.5
3rd	27.3	28.6
OT	33.3	33.3
Game	35.3	36.2

Team totals only: per-player on-ice numbers need shift data, which this source does not publish.

Scoring summary

2nd period

02:28 Nikita Kucherov (16) Gage Goncalves (7) · snap 0–1
12:11 Nikita Kucherov (17) Brayden Point (15), Gage Goncalves (8) · snap 0–2
14:49 Nick Paul (4) Oliver Bjorkstrand (11), Maxim Groshev (1) · snap 0–3

3rd period

01:06 Ivan Demidov (10) Juraj Slafkovský (15), Noah Dobson (18) · snap 1–3
01:40 Pontus Holmberg (6) Oliver Bjorkstrand (12), Charle-Edouard D'Astous (9) · tip-in 1–4
09:16 Juraj Slafkovský (12) Oliver Kapanen (9) · snap 2–4
12:17 Noah Dobson (7) Cole Caufield (19), Mike Matheson (14) · snap 3–4
19:56 Juraj Slafkovský (13) Ivan Demidov (22), Lane Hutson (31) · snap 4–4

Shootout

00:00 Gage Goncalves Unassisted · wrist 4–5

Three stars

Nikita Kucherov TBL · R #86 · 2 G, 0 A
Juraj Slafkovský MTL · L #20 · 2 G, 1 A
Gage Goncalves TBL · C #93 · 0 G, 2 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	03:50	TBL	Max Crozier	holding	2	Josh Anderson
1st	12:15	TBL	Nick Paul	delaying game puck over glass	2	—
1st	16:46	MTL	Arber Xhekaj	fighting (major)	5	Scott Sabourin
1st	16:46	TBL	Scott Sabourin	fighting (major)	5	Arber Xhekaj
1st	18:07	TBL	Charle-Edouard D'Astous	holding	2	Phillip Danault
2nd	03:54	MTL	Alexandre Texier	hooking	2	Declan Carlile
2nd	12:19	TBL	Nikita Kucherov	slashing	2	Alexandre Texier

Boxscore

Montreal Canadiens

Canadiens skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Juraj Slafkovský #20	L	2	1	3	+1	5	0	0	0	0.0	20:27
Ivan Demidov #93	R	1	1	2	+2	3	1	0	0	0.0	18:26
Noah Dobson #53	D	1	1	2	0	5	2	3	0	0.0	27:29
Oliver Kapanen #91	C	0	1	1	+1	5	0	2	0	42.9	16:20
Cole Caufield #13	R	0	1	1	+1	2	1	1	0	100.0	22:42
Lane Hutson #48	D	0	1	1	+1	3	0	2	0	0.0	28:13
Mike Matheson #8	D	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0.0	26:37
Joe Veleno #90	C	0	0	0	-1	1	2	0	0	75.0	09:43
Nick Suzuki #14	C	0	0	0	+1	0	2	0	0	68.8	22:43
Phillip Danault #24	C	0	0	0	-1	1	2	0	0	72.2	16:52
Alexandre Texier #85	L	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	0.0	14:34
Sammy Blais #27	L	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0.0	08:22
Brendan Gallagher #11	R	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0.0	13:42
Josh Anderson #17	R	0	0	0	-2	2	4	0	0	0.0	16:17
Zachary Bolduc #76	R	0	0	0	0	1	5	1	0	0.0	16:48
Alexandre Carrier #45	D	0	0	0	-1	1	0	1	0	0.0	18:56
Arber Xhekaj #72	D	0	0	0	-1	0	3	0	5	0.0	07:15
Jayden Struble #47	D	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.0	08:51

Canadiens goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Jacob Fowler #32	O	21	17	4	.810	15/19	1/1	63:43

Tampa Bay Lightning

Lightning skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Nikita Kucherov #86	R	2	0	2	+1	3	1	0	2	0.0	19:48
Gage Goncalves #93	C	0	2	2	+2	3	0	2	0	0.0	13:51
Oliver Bjorkstrand #22	R	0	2	2	+2	1	1	0	0	0.0	13:27
Nick Paul #20	L	1	0	1	+2	1	0	0	2	33.3	16:05
Pontus Holmberg #29	R	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0	0.0	12:25
Brayden Point #21	C	0	1	1	+1	0	0	1	0	45.5	16:38
Charle-Edouard D'Astous #51	D	0	1	1	+2	2	1	1	2	0.0	17:38
Maxim Groshev #52	D	0	1	1	+1	1	0	1	0	0.0	13:03
Anthony Cirelli #71	C	0	0	0	-2	3	0	2	0	33.3	18:06
Jake Guentzel #59	C	0	0	0	-2	0	1	0	0	60.0	18:42
Yanni Gourde #37	C	0	0	0	-1	1	1	1	0	44.4	15:46
Zemgus Girgensons #28	C	0	0	0	-1	2	2	1	0	0.0	14:52
Brandon Hagel #38	L	0	0	0	-2	1	1	2	0	0.0	21:25
Scott Sabourin #46	R	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	0.0	02:20
Darren Raddysh #43	D	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0.0	24:44
Declan Carlile #67	D	0	0	0	-2	0	2	3	0	0.0	20:01
J.J. Moser #90	D	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0.0	24:28
Max Crozier #24	D	0	0	0	-1	1	2	5	2	0.0	23:41

Lightning goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Jonas Johansson #31	W	35	31	4	.886	28/32	3/3	65:00

SOG shots on goal · BLK blocked shots · FO% faceoff win percentage · EV / PP saves over shots by strength. Skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Source NHL (boxscore, play-by-play, game summary). Shot locations are the league's tracked coordinates; the chart and the situation tables are computed by Play-Pause Hockey. Data as of 2026-09-28.