Alexandre Texier broke a tie 1:06 into the third period and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.

A month after breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goal-scoring record, Alex Ovechkin is in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since leading the Washington Capitals to the Stanley Cup in 2018.

The defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers made their first big move ahead of the NHL trade deadline by acquiring hard-nosed forward Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins.

Playoff scoring leader Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 18 saves to outplay Carey Price and lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Jonathan Marchessault, Max Pacioretty and William Karlsson came through with timely goals for the Vegas Golden Knights in their 4-2 series win over Colorado.