Hagel scores twice as Lightning rally past Canadiens to even series

MONTREAL (AP) — Brandon Hagel scored his Stanley Cup Playoff-leading fifth and sixth goals in the third period and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Sunday night in Game 4 to tie the series.

After the first three games in the first-round series went to overtime, Tampa Bay overcame a two-goal deficit to end it in regulation.

Hagel gave the Lightning the lead with 4:43 left, deflecting Nikita Kucherov’s shot past Jakub Dobes.

Jake Guentzel had a goal and assist, and Kucherov added two assists on the top line with Hagel. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Tampa.

The Lightning rebounded after falling 3-2 on Friday night on defenseman Lane Hutson’s OT slap shot.

Hagel tied it on a power play at 1:40 off a centering pass from Kucherov. The Lightning got the man advantage when Oliver Kapanen was sent off for high-sticking Dominic James.

Guentzel cut it to 2-1 with 54 seconds to go the second, beating Dobes from the left side off a feed from defenseman J.J. Moser.

Zachary Bolduc and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal in 3:23 span in the second. Caufield scored for the first time in the series after having 51 goals in the regular season. Dobes made 17 saves.

Bolduc opened the scoring with 9:54 left in the second. He took a long pass from defenseman Kaiden Guhle, held off Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh and had the puck deflect in off his body as he cut across the front of the goal.

Caufield struck on a power play with 6:31 left in the period, with Guentzel off for slashing Dobes’ glove. Caufield took Nick Suzuki’s centering pass in the slot and redirected the puck in.