What better time for your first career playoff goal than in sudden-death overtime? J.J. Moser’s first postseason goal gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win to send things to Montreal even at one game apiece. The win on Tuesday night for the Lightning ended a streak of seven losses in a row in playoff overtime.
Game 2 opened with Brandon Hagel opening up the scoring, with Lane Hutson offering a response for Montreal late in the first period. Josh Anderson would put Montreal ahead in the second before Nikita Kucherov‘s first playoff goal since 2023 would send things to overtime at 2-2. Kucherov’s recent run without a playoff goal was made possible partly because the Lightning lost in the first round in 2024 and 2025 to their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers.
With things going deep into overtime, JJ Moser was able to find space to beat Jakob Dobes to send the series to Montreal, with the Canadiens now looking to defend home ice.
Moser spoke after the game about the win and getting the overtime goal. “It’s a pretty good feeling, to be honest. I think, yeah, it’s something you dream of as a kid. There are a lot of things you dream of, but that’s for sure one of them.”
When asked about the intensity of the game, he added:
“Yeah, the intensity was great. It’s what the playoffs are all about. I think we need that. It’s going to be a tight series, it’s going to be an intense series, and we saw that tonight. I think we did a good job staying with it and believing in it—playing a full 60-minute game. As the game went on, I think we tilted the ice, got more chances, more looks, and got rewarded.”
JJ Moser scores the overtime winner for the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2
The Lightning wound up splitting the series before heading to Montreal for Game 3. Moser was asked how important that was and how they managed it:
“Just consistency, exactly. Defensively, we were solid. We didn’t give them much, we stayed on them, we didn’t let them out of their zone, and yeah, in the end, we got rewarded.”
Game 3 will mark the first time the Lightning have played in a playoff game in Montreal since Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, a 3-2 overtime win for the Canadiens.
