Dominic James and Jake Guentzel scored for the Lightning, who are the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves.
“We didn’t get the job done,” Tampa Bay forward Corey Perry said. “We pushed, but it wasn’t there. It’s frustrating in our building, but luckily there’s a Game 6.”
Texier made it 3-2 at 1:06. He took a stretch pass from Lane Hutson, skated into the left face-off circle and scored with a wrist shot to the far side that deflected off of Vasilevskiy’s glove and into the net.
“We played a more mature game,” Dobes said. “We experienced in the last game (a 3-2 home loss on Sunday) how to lose a lead, so I feel like today … we know how it feels, we know what to do and I’m really proud of our group. I feel like it was a good effort all around.”
Tampa Bay pulled Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker with 2:33 left, but Dobes made 10 saves during that stretch to preserve the win.
“It’s not an easy team to go that long 5-on-6 (against) and I thought we managed it pretty well,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “It wasn’t one thing I think, it was collectively we found a way to keep it out of our net.”
Gallagher gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 3:00 of the first period. Alex Newhook got his own rebound off the end boards and had the puck knocked away at the edge of the crease before Gallagher buried it from in front.
“Just his presence, his energy, you know what he’s going to bring on the ice every time he puts on that sweater,” Montreal forward Josh Anderson said of Gallagher. “It was exciting to see him get a goal on the first shift and give our team a boost.”
