Montreal beat Tampa Bay 2-1 in Game 7 on Sunday night to take the Eastern Conference first round in seven games — and every one of the seven was decided by a single goal [1]. Four went to overtime. Only two prior NHL playoff series in the league's century-plus history have ended seven games with all seven settled by one goal [2].

Alex Newhook broke a 1-1 tie with 8:53 left in the third. Rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes, in his first playoff series, made 28 saves on 29 shots. Nick Suzuki scored his first of the series in the second period. Montreal generated only nine shots on goal — the first team to win a playoff game with fewer than ten shots since shots were first tracked in the 1959-60 season [3].

Tampa Bay outshot Montreal in every single game of the series. The Lightning had the deeper roster, the Stanley Cup pedigree of two recent titles, and Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. Montreal had Suzuki's two-way game, the Dobes story, and the most efficient shot conversion of any first-round team — the Habs scored on roughly 14 percent of their shots across the seven games [4].

The Canadiens move to the Eastern Conference second round against the Buffalo Sabres beginning Tuesday. The series carries the Original Six revival frame the league has been chasing since the 2014 expansion-bracket reshape [5]. The geometry — Montreal versus Buffalo, two of the league's six oldest franchises, in a second round — has not happened since 1992.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos