Canadiens beat Lightning in overtime, 5-4, in playoff opener

Dale Weise scored 18 minutes 8 seconds into overtime Wednesday night to give the Montreal Canadiens a 5-4 victory over the host Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening game of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

Daniel Briere passed from behind the net to Weise in the right circle, and he beat Anders Lindback for the winning score. Lindback stopped 39 of 44 shots while filling in for injured goaltender Ben Bishop.

Carey Price stopped 21 shots for the Canadiens, who blew a pair of third-period leads. Brian Gionta had a short-handed goal and Tomas Plekanec, Lars Eller and Thomas Vanek also scored for Montreal.

Steven Stamkos scored twice for Tampa Bay, including the goal that forced overtime.

Three of the four regular-season meetings between the teams were decided in overtime or a shootout, while the fourth was clinched by an empty-net goal.

at Pittsburgh 4, Columbus 3: Brandon Sutter scored on a wrist shot from the left circle 8:18 into the third period, helping the Penguins rally in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Beau Bennett and Matt Niskanen scored power-play goals 45 seconds apart in the second period, erasing Pittsburgh’s two-goal deficit. Jussi Jokinen also scored for the Penguins and Marc-Andre Fleury overcame some shaky defense to stop 31 shots.

Jack Johnson, Mark Letestu and Derek Mackenzie scored for the Blue Jackets, who fell to 0-5 all-time in postseason games. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 28 saves but was handcuffed by Sutter’s knuckling wrister at the end of a two-on-one break.