The Montreal Canadiens started out Friday’s Stanley Cup playoff action by taking a first-round series lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Lane Hutson scored just over two minutes into overtime to secure a 3-2 win for the Canadiens in Friday night’s Game 3 in Montreal.
Here’s a look at Friday’s results and the upcoming schedule as the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs continues this weekend.
Friday schedule and results
Montreal Canadiens 3, Tampa Bay Lightning 2 in OT (Canadiens lead 2-1)
Utah Mammoth 4, Vegas Golden Knights 2 (Mammoth lead 2-1)
Anaheim Ducks 7, Edmonton Oilers 4 (Ducks lead 2-1)
Carolina Hurricanes at Ottawa Senators, 3 p.m. ET (Hurricanes lead 3-0)
Dallas Stars at Minnesota Wild, 5:30 p.m. ET (Stars lead 2-1)
Pittsburgh Penguins at Philadelphia Flyers, 8 p.m. ET (Flyers lead 3-0)
Canadiens 3, Lightning 2 (OT)
For the third time in as many playoff games, the Lightning and Canadiens went to overtime Friday night.
For the second straight outing, it was the Canadiens who emerged victorious from the extra period.
The crowd at Bell Centre first erupted when Alexandre Texier opened scoring for the Habs five minutes into the first period.
After two Lightning goals, Kirby Dach got the crowd back in it with a tying goal late in the second.
The Canadiens got two breakaway chances in the third period, but were unable to beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Vasilevskiy made one last stop at the third-period buzzer to send the game to overtime before Hutson beat him on the slapshot early in overtime.
The Lightning will look to even the series with a road win when the puck drops for Game 4 in Montreal on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
Mammoth 4, Golden Knights 2
The Mammoth dominated early in the first playoff home game in Utah history.
The NHL’s newest franchise started out Game 3 by scoring four goals on just eight shots against Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart.
Jack Eichel scored midway through the game for the Golden Knights before Nic Dowd cut the Mammoth’s lead to two with three minutes left in regulation.
The Golden Knights were ultimately unable to recover from the early deficit despite outshooting the Mammoth 31-12.
Vegas will hope to regroup with a better start to Monday’s Game 4 in Salt Lake City.
Connor McDavid’s first goal of the 2026 playoffs wasn’t enough to lead the Ducks past the Oilers as the series swung to Anaheim.
The Ducks grabbed an early lead late in the first period with a power play goal from Mikael Granlund.
The Oilers regained the lead early in the second with back-to-back goals from Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but the visitors held the advantage for less than 10 minutes before Alex Killorn tied the game for the Ducks.
Granlund used a high stick to score a Ducks go-ahead goal that ultimately got waved off late in the second.
The game still swung the Ducks’ way early in the third with two quick tallies, including the first postseason tally of Beckett Sennecke’s career.
McDavid got the Oilers within one with a power-play goal midway through the frame.
Anaheim’s Jeffrey Viel ultimately put the game away with a late insurance goal. He also dropped the gloves with the Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
The Oilers have a long way to go to make it back to a third straight Stanley Cup Final. McDavid and his team will look to regroup before returning to Anaheim for Game 4 on Sunday night.