Gage Goncalves scored the overtime game-winning goal to give the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and force Game 7 of their Stanley Cup playoff series.

The deciding game of their Eastern Conference first-round set will be Sunday in Tampa. That clash has quite the affair to top in entertainment value.

A thrilling Game 6 finally came to a close when Goncalves buried a loose puck amidst a scramble at 9:02 of overtime for his first career playoff overtime winner.

It came shortly after the Lightning killed a Montreal power play.

Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had struggled to find his form during this series, but he delivered his best performance with 30 saves to post his eighth career playoff shutout.

Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes stopped 32 shots in a fantastic goaltending duel.

All six games have been decided by one goal. Both teams have won twice in overtime.

The series winner will face the Buffalo Sabres in the second round of the playoffs.

The lack of goals was not indicative of the action. Both clubs generated a litany of scoring chances in a back-and-forth clash.

Tampa came within a whisker of scoring first early in the second period when Corey Perry slipped a shot through Dobes’ legs, but Phillip Danault pulled the puck off the goal line behind his netminder.

Late in the second period, Vasilevskiy robbed Ivan Demidov with a pair of sprawling saves that had the Montreal forward looking skyward during a Canadiens power play. Danault was also stopped on a partial breakaway in the dying seconds of the frame.

Alexandre Texier, who scored the winning goal in Game 5, rang a shot off the post early in the third period moments before Jake Guentzel was stopped on a breakaway at the other end.

During Tampa’s ensuing power play, both Nikita Kucherov and Guentzel struck iron.

Dobes also stood tall during another Lightning third-period power play, capping it with a clutch stop on Brayden Point.

–Field Level Media

The visiting Buffalo Sabres scored two first-period goals and never trailed en route to a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday, clinching their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in Game 6.

Alex Tuch and Mattias Samuelsson built a 2-0 lead in the opening frame before Zach Benson and Josh Norris added insurance tallies in the third as Buffalo advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2007.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each dished out two assists while Alex Lyon made 25 saves for the Sabres, who won all three games played in Boston in the series.

David Pastrnak scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 22 shots in Boston’s losing effort.

Buffalo finished 0-for-4 on the power play, while Boston never had a man advantage.

The Sabres needed just 3:25 to score on their first shot and take a 1-0 lead for the third consecutive game. Tuch was open at the top of the crease to net Dahlin’s centering pass from the left circle past a trailing Swayman.

After the game’s first power play ended, Lyon kept the momentum on Buffalo’s side with huge saves in the middle stages of the first period. Among them, Casey Mittelstadt had a break-in attempt and a follow-up after a Morgan Geekie feed sent him ahead of the defense.

Samuelsson made it 2-0 at 12:26 of the first, sending in a long shot from above the left circle through traffic. The puck sailed past Swayman’s blocker side.

Pastrnak got the second period off to an emphatic start for Boston at 1:54, helping to force a neutral-ice turnover before beating Lyon with a one-time shot off Pavel Zacha’s cross-ice pass on a 2-on-1 rush.

Neither side tallied for the rest of the period, including a stretch of nine-plus uninterrupted minutes. Swayman kept Boston’s deficit at 2-1 by denying close-range shots by Thompson and Bowen Byram during the extended sequence without a whistle.

Lyon made big saves against Geekie and Pastrnak to thwart Boston’s heavy pressure early in the third, helping to set the stage for Benson’s goal at 5:58.

Off a draw in Boston’s offensive zone, Josh Doan beat both Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy to a puck to start the goal-scoring play. While bracing for a hit in the left corner, Doan fired a pass to an open Benson in the slot, where Benson fired home a one-time goal.

Norris punctuated the series victory, hitting the empty net with 3:20 remaining.

–Field Level Media

George Russell said he is treating his battle for the Formula 1 world championship with Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli like a marathon.

As the schedule resumes with Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, Italy’s Antonelli holds a nine-point lead over England’s Russell with Monaco’s Charles Leclerc of Ferrari another 14 points back in third place.

“It made me think — the guy who’s running the London Marathon after three miles isn’t thinking about the finish line because he’s got 23 miles to go. We’re in race four of the season so it’s not even a consideration,” Russell said Friday when asked about trailing his teammate.

“Of course (Kimi)’s done an amazing job so far this year. The last race was a little bit unfortunate from my side but these things go one way one weekend and swing back later in the year. I’m experienced enough to know how a Championship works and there’s a long way ahead.”

After Russell won the March 7 season opener in Australia, Antonelli finished first in both China on March 15 and Japan on March 28 before the next two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were canceled due to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Russell, 28, said the main thing is to keep both Mercedes running at the front.

“It’s pretty clear — we fight each other hard, but we fight each other fair,” he said when asked about the team’s approach. “Right now, there’s lots of talk about the fight between Kimi and I, but we also need to make sure that we continue being the ones to beat.”

Russell said it would be a mistake to overlook Mercedes’ rivals.

“Last year it was Oscar (Piastri) and Lando (Norris) and from nowhere, you had (Max) Verstappen come. Charles is doing a great job, Lewis (Hamilton) is fast and McLaren are bringing their upgrade this weekend. I’m sure Red Bull won’t be in this position forever as well, so we can’t take it for granted.

“I’m just going about my business as usual. I want to be on pole, I want to make a good start, I want to at least be at the first corner in the position I started and fight for victory.”

–Field Level Media