Weise's overtime winner gives Canadiens victory over Lightning in Game 1

Dale Weise scored with two minutes remaining in overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of their first round series on Wednesday.

Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov opened the scoring with a rolling puck through the five-hole of Carey Price. Just 19 seconds later, Tomas Plekanec would score for the Canadiens, faking out Radko Gudas and going top shelf to tie the game.

The Canadiens would finish the period with an unsuccessful power play, though they outshot the Lightning 14-4.

The second period featured token playoff chippiness as Daniel Briere and Cedric Paquette exchanged cross-checks and Andrei Markov laid a large hit on Ondrej Palat. Nobody missed an opportunity for a hit or a facewash in a scrum.

Brendan Gallagher took a puck to the face on a point shot from his own teammate and left briefly but would return to the bench moments later.

Steven Stamkos scored on a wrist shot after blowing by five Canadiens 13 minutes into the period, starting a flurry of chances for both teams.

It wouldn't take long for Montreal to tie it back up with a short-handed goal from Brian Gionta on his second shot on Anders Lindback.

[Courtesy Fox Sports]

The third period saw the Canadiens take the lead briefly thanks to Lars Eller, while just minutes later Alex Killorn tied it up for the Lightning.

Rookie Ondrej Palat left after only one shift in the third, walking under his own power to the dressing room, and did not return.

The goals would come aplenty as Thomas Vanek would score on a tip-in from David Deshairnais for his first goal since March 29th.

Stamkos would tie the game 4-4 with a beautiful tap-in two-on-one with Alex Killorn.

[Courtesy Fox Sports]

Although the Canadiens would finish the third period on the power play, they would fail to score bringing their power play goal drought to 0-for-26 dating back to March 27th.

To no surprise, the game would head to overtime where Weise was the hero giving the Canadiens a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2 will take place Friday at 7 p.m. (EST) in Tampa.