Breakout Star Tyler Johnson Gives Lightning Scoring Montreal Desperately Lacks

The dagger has been inserted in the heart of the Montreal Canadiens.

Somehow, you just knew it would be breakout star Tyler Johnson to do it, too.

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s most impressive offensive weapon of these playoffs took a while to inflict his damage Wednesday night. Right down to the final seconds, in fact. But with a late goal—a quick redirection of a perfect cross-crease pass from defenseman Victor Hedman with just 1.1 seconds left on the clock—Johnson gave the host Lightning a 2-1 victory in Game 3 and put them in position to sweep the Canadiens Thursday night in Tampa.

“Honestly, I had no idea what the time was,” Johnson said on the CBC broadcast seconds after the game ended with his teammates still in a state of shock. “I didn’t know why they were checking the goal. I thought it was a goal the entire time just because I didn’t know.”

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The sting was especially agonizing for the Habs, not only because it put them in a hole only four NHL teams have ever been able to climb out of in a seven-game series, but also because Johnson is exactly the kind of player the team is lacking.

They have one of the best goaltenders in the league in Carey Price and top-end offensive defensemen in P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov. There is a reason, however, that Price has been so valuable this year. The team just has so little in the way of scoring threats.

Max Pacioretty earned 37 goals in the regular season but has just three in these playoffs. Only four players on the team have scored more than once this spring, including defenseman Tom Gilbert and plugger Dale Weise.

That’s not going to get you into the third round of the NHL playoffs. Not even with Price in goal.

The Lightning, meanwhile, were the NHL’s goal-scoring leaders in the regular season and have come through with clutch performances even in tight games in the playoffs, many of them from Johnson.

The little man with big-time scoring ability leads all playoff participants in game-winning goals with three, and his eight markers regardless of situation also pace the league. His 11 points rank third behind Anaheim Ducks duo Corey Perry (14) and Ryan Getzlaf (12), but nobody has been as clutch as Johnson this spring.

Just ask Lightning executive Jay Feaster:

The Lightning's franchise player, Steven Stamkos, has been relatively quiet this spring with one goal and seven points—more than half of which have come in the past two games. The Canadiens held him without a single shot for just the second time all year Wednesday.

Johnson has more than made up for Stamkos' lack of results. He had an overtime winner against the Detroit Red Wings in the first-round series, but Wednesday’s goal was no less exciting. It saved the Lightning from having to try to pull out a win in overtime after Brendan Gallagher tied the game at 1-1 midway through the third period of a game in which the Bolts were stuck in some sort of defensive trap. There was a period of nearly 18 minutes during which they failed to record even a single shot.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

"We went into our 52-minute prevent defense,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the game, as seen on the NHL Network. “It was ludicrous, but it looked like that was our mindset.”

No matter. With a player as naturally gifted and hard-working as Johnson, a 5’9” phenom who went undrafted but has risen to star status as a sophomore, the Lightning don’t need many shots to find the back of the net.

Johnson did it with his first on the night—his team’s 19th.

"He’s truly amazing,” Cooper said of the 24-year-old. “I’m extremely fortunate that I’m the coach that gets to call him over the boards.”

Montreal head coach Michel Therrien would surely agree with that:

If Therrien's players don’t channel their inner Johnson, and quickly, the Canadiens will become the first team in NHL history to sweep a team 4-0 in one postseason and be swept by the same team in the following postseason, according to Sportsnet Stats.

As for Johnson and the Bolts, they think they can be better after relying on a late goal to crush the Canadiens’ spirits for the eighth time in a row in head-to-head meetings this season.

They have yet to lose to the Habs since last year’s playoff sweep.

“I don’t think we played our best,” Johnson said in an interview with the NHL Network following the game. “I don’t think we played desperate enough. But we were able to squeeze one out playing desperate at the end. (Thursday’s game) has to be a lot better than it was tonight. We’re going to be ready.”

The question for Montreal is whether or not its most talented scorers will be able to say the same thing.

Steve Macfarlane has covered the NHL for more than a decade, including seven seasons following the Calgary Flames for The Calgary Sun. Follow him on Twitter at @macfarlaneHKY