Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning NHL Picks, Odds, Predictions 7/7/2021

The Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning meet in game five of the Stanley Cup Finals in NHL action from Amalie Arena on Wednesday night.

The Montreal Canadiens will try to live to fight another day after getting o the board in the series with a 3-2 overtime win over the Lightning in game four.

Montreal took the lead with the lone goal of the opening period from Josh Anderson with just over four minutes to go in the 1^st. Barclay Goodrow tied things up at one for the Bolts with the only goal in the second period, scoring with just 2:40 to go in the middle period. Alex Romanov restored Montreal’s lead just under nine minutes into the 3^rd but Pat Marron would tie things up at two exactly five minutes later. Neither side found a winner the rest of the way, so it was off to OT where Anderson found the winning goal for Montreal just under four minutes into OT, keeping the Habs’ season alive.

Carey Price got the win between the pipes for Montreal after stopping 32 of the 34 shots faced in the winning effort while Andrei Vasilevskiy ended up with the defeat for Tampa Bay between the pipes after allowing all 3 goals on 21 shots in the loss.

Montreal is 9-3 in their last 12 games as an underdog and 8-3 in their last 11 games following a win while the under is 3-1-3 in their last 7 games played on one day’s rest. Tampa Bay is 50-19 in their last 69 home games and 95-44 in their last 139 games overall while the under is 3-1-1 in their last 5 Wednesday games. Montreal is 3-14 in the last 17 meetings between these two teams and 0-8 in the last 8 meetings between the two teams in Tampa Bay.

This is a game where you could make a case for either side as the Bolts are the better team and have been in this kind of situation before, but Montreal’s snuck in the back door and are still alive and kicking and the hardest game to win is a closeout. I think this is a one goal game whichever way you slice it, so give me Montreal +1.5 here.