With only four games left in the season, the Montreal Canadiens knew it was a battle for home-ice advantage in the playoffs, if they could defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second time in a week.

Second place in the Atlantic Division wasn’t on the line as a guarantee, but a win would go a long way.

The Canadiens played the game of the year winning 2-1.

Wilde Horses 

It was clean. It was pure. It was the first 50th goal for a Canadiens player in 36 years. It was vintage Cole Caufield.

It was, most appropriately, scored on a pass from Nick Suzuki who was fed by Juraj Slafkovsky. It’s a moment in Canadiens history. It could not have been sweeter.

Though it is added pressure to try to get your 50th at home, it was perfect that it was, because Caufield got to enjoy the biggest roar at the Bell Centre in five years. The ovation crescendoed when Michel Lacroix announced the tally some five minutes later, and the ovation still didn’t stop.

But there was also a rest of the game to be played, and was it full of delicious storylines.

The game winner was scored with minute and four seconds remaining. Suzuki stole the puck, then fed Slafkovsky in front of the net. He redirected it home. It was a milestone goal for him as well.

Slafkovsky is having his first 30-goal campaign. For Suzuki, it’s his 98th point of the season as he also hunts down a milestone.

The Canadiens made the decision to not take anything from the Lightning. After every whistle, when the Lightning got anywhere close to Jakub Dobes, the Canadiens punished the attacker who tried to impact Dobes. Physically, they refused to back down.

As the game wore on, an important lesson was learned: When you don’t back down from Tampa, it becomes apparent that you have been backing down from them before. This didn’t become a game filled with hate and anger, because Tampa became this. They were always this. This game showed elements of a donnybrook brewing because the Canadiens joined them in the war.

The value of a player who can compete and intimidate rose exponentially. Josh Anderson was hitting everything that moved and got under the skin of Nikita Kucherov. One of his teammates tried to protect Kucherov, and Anderson pounded him to the ice with his fists.

Declan Carlile was badly overmatched. Anderson landed blow after blow, and when Carlile went to the ice, Anderson just kept on punching.

The value of Jayden Struble went up. He was high-sticked in the first period and went for treatment, but he kept opening the cut through out the game, because he kept getting in altercations. Emil Lilleberg had to leave the game because Struble beat him up so badly, and he was wearing a full wired cage. It didn’t matter. Lilleberg was cooked.

Even Lane Hutson and Corey Perry had an altercation that didn’t amount to a fight, but it was close. The top line was in a skirmish, the second line was in a skirmish, the third line too, and the fourth line. If a Canadiens player was in the lineup, they were protecting their teammates — and their reputations.

Head Coach Martin St. Louis made them know that this was like a playoff game, and the script of the Washington Capitals playoff series wasn’t going to happen again.

Establishing your desire to leave it all out there, your willingness to fight for every inch, and stand up for your teammate is a uniquely hockey moment. In no other sport must you combine skill with intimidation, the way hockey demands it of you.

In hockey, it’s not enough to possess the skills that help to score a goal or stop one. A player’s value increases with a certain intangible that is difficult to define, but who has it and who does not is always clear and obvious.

The Canadiens, in this one, took the road to having it. It was beautiful to watch.

Wilde Goats

Head Coach Martin St. Louis said that the Canadiens were flat in their last two games. It happens over a long season where the mind or the body doesn’t cooperate. However, against the Lightning, they needed to be all-in, both mentally and physically.

And they were. That doesn’t mean it will all work out, though. The power play was zero for seven, and they will have to find solutions for what is ailing it. This power play has been struggling lately in a mighty way. It’s too static. They also are not engaging nearly enough for possession.

Wilde Cards

With the Saskatoon Blades’ seventh game overtime upset over the Edmonton Oil Kings, the Medicine Hat Tigers have a surprise opponent in their second round series.

The defending champions will face the Calgary Hitmen starting at Co-Op Place in Medicine Hat, Alta., on Friday night. Bryce Pickford should be able to have an excellent series, considering their head-to-head record.

The Tigers beat the Hitmen seven of eight games this season. They have only two losses in the last 16 games over Calgary. They routinely put five on the board when they play Calgary.

With the Tigers heavily favoured to win their next round, the wait is likely to be longer for the arrival of Pickford to the Laval Rocket. He’s already signed a contract. He will come as soon as the Tigers are finished with their playoffs.

The issue is that the Tigers are the fifth-ranked team in the nation, and it is conceivable that Pickford could be playing junior hockey until mid-June.

The biggest chance for Pickford and the Tigers to lose would be in the East Conference final, where powerhouse Prince Albert is expected to advance. The Raiders have drawn Saskatoon in the second round. It should be easy.

However, they play the games for a reason, and anything can happen in the playoffs in hockey.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.

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