Andrei Vasilevskiy sends Lightning to Game 7 with dominant performance

The Montreal Canadiens might be in trouble. 

Not necessarily because they missed a chance to clinch their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night in a 1-0 overtime loss, sending the series to a decisive seventh game on Sunday night.

But because they might have allowed Lightning goalie Andre Vasilevskiy to get hot. 

In what was one of the best goalie duels of the playoffs so far, Vasilevskiy was able to outlast Montreal's Jakub Dobes by making 30 saves, including several highlight-reel stops to help steal the game. That performance kept the Lightning in it long enough for Gage Goncalves to score the winning goal on a rebound from right in front of the net. 

It was a vintage performance from one of the best goalies of this era. It might be a turning point in the series. 

Andrei Vasilevskiy may have found his game just in time

There are few goalies in the modern era who have a resume that compares with the one Vasilevskiy has put together in Tampa Bay. He has played in four Stanley Cup Finals, won two of them, owns a Vezina Trophy and has been a finalist six different times, including this season. 

When he is on his game, he is as good as it gets.

He is also a cheat code for a Tampa Bay team that already has an outstanding roster. Putting a goalie like him behind that can turn an already good Lightning team into an almost unbeatable force. 

After a slow start to this series that saw Vasilevskiy enter Game 6 on Friday with only an .880 save percentage, he might be finding his rhythm.

His biggest moment might have come late in the second period when he made back-to-back stunning saves to rob Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov.