TAMPA, Fla. — The Montreal Canadiens are returning home with a chance to win their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they are doing so without having gotten a single goal at five-on-five from either of their top two forward lines.

It is a minor miracle, but the Canadiens’ depth has put them on the verge of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Canadiens got goals from Brendan Gallagher, Kirby Dach and Alexandre Texier and 38 saves from rookie goalie Jakub Dobeš in a 3-2 win in Game 5 against the Lightning on Wednesday. The Canadiens lead the series 3-2 and will have a chance to advance in Game 6 at the Bell Centre on Friday night.

Top scorers Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovský were held off the scoresheet at five-on-five for a fifth straight game, which is something that will need to change at some point for the Canadiens.

But it didn’t matter in this one.

The Lightning got goals on nearly identical second-period two-on-one breaks from rookie Dominic James and veteran Jake Guentzel, who has eight points in the series. The Lightning notably did not get any production out of Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, who have two goals in the series between them.

The Lightning will need more from those veteran core pieces in Game 6, and they will need more from Andrei Vasilevskiy.

On the day Vasilevskiy was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, he gave up an absolute stinker on the game-winner by Texier at 1:06 of the third period. That shot just cannot go in. There’s no other way to put it.

Here’s the thing, Vasilevskiy may win the Vezina Trophy this season, but his playoff numbers the last three years have been shaky, dating back to losing to Toronto in 2023 (.875 save percentage), Florida in 2024 (.897) and Florida again last year (.872). He’s now given up 14 goals in five games this series. He was great in Game 3, stopping three breakaways, but otherwise has not dominated the goalie matchup with Dobeš.

The goalie matchup between a two-time Stanley Cup champion and a rookie was a major storyline ahead of this series. So far, the way it’s played out has to be somewhat alarming for Tampa Bay.

Gallagher’s hero ride

There was always a sense that Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was saving Gallagher for the perfect moment of the series, that he was getting him wound up tighter and tighter with every game he sat out, and Game 5 was the moment to unleash him.

“There’s no doubt if he plays he’s going to give you everything he has,” St. Louis said Wednesday morning.

As St. Louis said those words, Gallagher was also somewhere at the team hotel as rookie Oliver Kapanen was at Benchmark International Arena skating with the rest of the scratches.

On Gallagher’s first shift of the series, he helped create a turnover in the neutral zone by grazing a puck away from Corey Perry, allowing Alex Newhook to grab the puck and enter the Lightning zone with speed. Newhook faked going short side on Andrei Vasilevskiy before cutting back across the crease, creating confusion and pulling Vasilevskiy out of position.

That’s when Gallagher arrived on the scene, putting a loose puck into a wide open net to open the scoring at 3:00 of the first period.

St. Louis mixes it up

The Canadiens warmed up looking very much like they did in Game 4, with the obvious exception of Gallagher being in the lineup.

But once the game began, they looked completely different.

St. Louis changed three of his four forward lines, most notably breaking up the top unit of Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovský which had been shut out at five-on-five through the first four games of the series.

Slafkovský moved to a line with Jake Evans and Ivan Demidov, who was Slafkovský’s linemate for the majority of the time from mid-November to early March. He was replaced on the top line by Josh Anderson, who had been a force on the fourth line this series and got more ice time, 15:30, thanks to the promotion.

Picking Anderson to play with Suzuki and Caufield was a bold decision by St. Louis. Over the last three seasons, Suzuki played just over 255 minutes at five-on-five with Anderson and the Canadiens’ underlying numbers in those minutes were worse — by a mile — than they were with any other forward who had played at least 100 minutes with him, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Suzuki ultimately spent a significant amount of time centering two lines, taking several shifts between Demidov and Slafkovský as well. The results for the Canadiens’ top-six still weren’t there.

And finally, Anderson and Evans were replaced on Phillip Danault’s line by Gallagher and Alex Newhook, who created the chaos that allowed Gallagher to open the scoring by driving the puck hard to the net.

Guentzel continues big series

Guenztel now has eight points (2-6) in the series after scoring the then-game-tying goal late in the second period. He beat Dobeš with a shot that found its way under the goalie’s left arm. Guentzel’s also scored late in the second period Sunday night in Montreal in Game 4, a goal that really got Tampa going in their comeback win.

This is why Tampa traded for Guentzel two years ago, because of the big-game production he had shown during years in Pittsburgh. His goal Wednesday night was his 43rd career playoff goal in 79 games.

He’s bounced around a few forward lines in this series, the Lightning looking to get other guys going, but part of that, too, is because head coach Jon Cooper knows he never has to worry how that will impact Guentzel’s ability to produce.

Kucherov still searching for top gear

Kucherov was better in Game 4 with his two-assist effort but the Lightning winger regressed Wednesday night in Game 5.

It’s really quite bizarre what’s going on with him for most of this series. But he just isn’t taking over games like we’re used to seeing during the regular season. There’s a decent chance he wins the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP this season. And he’s already been named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player as voted on by his peers.

So where is that version of Kucherov, at least consistently, in this series? He had a big game-tying goal in Game 2 and set up Brandon Hagel’s game-winner in Game 4. But otherwise, not vintage Kucherov.

To make matters worse, he bobbled a puck at the Montreal blue line on a Tampa power-play in the second period and allowed Jake Evans to break through alone on Andrei Vasilevskiy only for the Bolts netminder to bail out Kucherov with a save.

Kucherov’s body language shows his frustration, too. It’s not hard to tell when he’s not feeling great about what’s going on.

Kucherov started on the top line again with Hagel and Point for the second game in a row, but that unit didn’t generate as much on this night. Cooper made an adjustment mid-game, with Kucherov and Hagel joining Anthony Cirelli on a new top line, while Point joined Yanni Gourde and Jake Guentzel on another line. The Tampa head coach keeps trying to find ways to get Kucherov going. And for that matter, Point, too. Tampa’s No. 1 center has struggled all series, with just one power-play goal. He suffered a knee injury earlier this season, which cost him the Olympics and it just doesn’t look like he’s recovered fully.