Canadiens’ Caufield Scores 50th Goal in Critical Win over Lightning

Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield scored his career-high 50th goal of the season on Thursday in the Habs’ 2-1 win over the Atlantic Division-rival Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre. In so doing, he recorded the 13th 50-goal campaign in team history, as the seventh Hab to ever accomplish the feat.

Caufield scored the goal to open the scoring at 6:30 of the second period, taking a pass from Nick Suzuki to put it past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. The game stayed that way until late in the third when Bolts defenseman Darren Raddysh tied the score with less than two minutes to go and Vasilevskiy pulled. With the goal, Raddysh prevented Caufield from tying Guy Lafleur with 13 game-winning goals on the season.

Related: Canadiens’ Caufield Breaks Lafleur Record for Most Go-Ahead Goals

Juraj Slafkovsky responded soon thereafter with a late game-winning goal, converting a separate pass from Suzuki in the slot to reach the 30-goal mark for the first time. With the two points on the night, Suzuki hit 98, as he vies to become the first Canadiens player since Mats Naslund to score 100 points in a season (1985-86).

Prior to Caufield reaching the high-water mark, Stephane Richer had been the last Canadiens player to score 50 in a season in 1989-90. Caufield had previously become the first Habs player to record 40 since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94.

With the win, the Canadiens leapfrog over the Lightning to move into second place in the Atlantic. They are now above the Bolts by two points with three games each left to play. They trail the division-leading Sabres, who have two games left to play, by two points. The Sabres own the tie-breaker with 41 regulation wins to 33 for the Habs.

The Canadiens next play the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday at home, before finishing the season on the road with games against the New York Islanders (Sunday) and Philadelphia Flyers (Tuesday).