Parenteau scores as Canadiens down Lightning in Game 5 to extend series

WATCH ABOVE: Fans are celebrating as the Canadiens win their second game against the Tampa Bay Lightning – bringing them one step closer to the Eastern Conference Finals. Global’s Rachel Lau is there.

MONTREAL – Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau scored his first of the playoffs with 4:07 left in regulation time to lift Montreal to a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning and keep the Canadiens post-season hopes alive on Saturday night.

The Lightning wasted a second chance to eliminate Montreal but still hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven second-round series heading into Game 6 on Tuesday night in Tampa, Fla.

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Lightning captain Steven Stamkos had tied the game at 9:27 of the third period after Devante Smith-Pelly scored in the first for Montreal.

P.K. Subban slipped the puck to Parenteau for a long shot over goalie Ben Bishop’s glove for the winner.

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Montreal outshot Tampa Bay 29-25.

Smith-Pelly got Montreal on the board 9:03 into the game on an off-wing wrist shot to the top corner that went in and out so quickly it needed video review.

Since the start of the series the Canadiens have hit an astonishing number of posts and crossbars, so many that Subban said this week that Bishop was “sitting on a horseshoe.” Subban, Parenteau (from the slot) and Jeff Petry all struck the iron in the second period.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper shook up his units, moving Stamkos from centre to right wing with Valtteri Filppula up the middle, and it worked.

Tampa Bay made its push in the third. Moments after Price robbed Filppula from the doorstep with a glove save, Anton Stralman’s blast got through traffic and Stamkos was there to slam it in to tie the game 1-1 at 10:56.

The Canadiens are hoping to become the fifth team to rebound from a 3-0 deficit to win a series; last accomplished last year by Los Angeles.

Notes – Obscure stat: With a 6-2 win in Game 4, Montreal became only the second team to avoid a four-game sweep with a road win of four or more goals. The last? Pittsburgh 10-3 over Philadelphia in 2012. . . Nathan Beaulieu, injured in the first round, returned after missing seven games. Greg Pateryn was scratched. . . The Bolts scratched Vladislav Namestnikov and went with seven defencemen. Brenden Morrow returned, bumping Jonathan Drouin.