The Stanley cup is the holy grail of ice hockey when it comes to the Canadians. Lives will come to a screeching halt as every citizen in and out of the country will glue themselves to sports channels to watch their favorite teams battling it out to bring back the trophy. A firm favorite has been Josh Anderson from the Montreal Canadians. He carried the weight of keeping the dream of his fans alive as he played the game of his life at this year’s Stanley Cup final. Josh Anderson scored two goals, including the game-winner in overtime and too the 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
With 1:01 left in the third period, Montreal’s Shea Weber was called for a four-minute high sticking penalty, of which 2:59 carried over into overtime. But the Canadians were able to kill it off with key saves from Carey Price (32 saves), and Anderson scored a goal in transition with 4:21 left in the OT to cut Tampa Bay’s series lead to 3-1.
Price quoted “I thought our guys were playing really well in front of me, we were doing our best to clear the chances. We’re a resilient group. We faced adversity all season long and responded well.”
Before Anderson’s winner, the game was a series of responses by the Lightning Anderson gave the Canadians their first lead of the series with a goal with 4:21 left in the first period, but the Lightning capitalized on Montreal not being able to clear the puck out of their zone in the second. Ryan McDonagh intercepted a pass in the Canadians’ zone and provided the assist to Barclay Goodrow with 2:40 left in the period to tie the game at one goal apiece. Alexander Romanov scored with 11:12 left in the third period to put Montreal ahead 2-1, but it was answered by a Pat Maroon goal just five minutes later. The Lightning outshot the Canadians 34-21.
