(1) Tampa Bay Lightning Vs. (7) Montreal Canadiens
This series pitted the top-seeded Lightning, who had hastily eliminated the Islanders in the first round, against the Canadiens, who were riding an emotional high after their thrilling comeback seven-game series victory against the Boston Bruins.
Game 1, at Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum, saw a not-so-rare occurrence for the Lightning: a shutout by goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, his fourth of the postseason out of six games he played in. Khabibulin turned away all 21 shots he saw in the 4–0 victory, with the 21 shots being an indicator of the strong Lightning defense. Game 1 also saw Montreal goalie Jose Theodore, who had shut out Boston in game seven of the quarter-finals, get pulled in favor of Mathieu Garon, who went 6-for-6 during his brief stint in goal. Game 2 saw Theodore return to goal for Montreal, but the Canadiens still lost the game by a score of 3–1.
Game 3 saw Khabibulin give up three goals for the first time in five games. In fact, in the five games since his last loss, he had allowed a combined total of three goals. But despite the letdown, Tampa found a way to win the game 65 seconds into overtime, 4–3. The demoralizing defeat stung Montreal, and they were swept without resisting in a 3–1 Game 4 loss.
| April 23 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 4-0 | Montreal Canadiens | St. Pete Times Forum | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (St. Louis, Lecavalier) Fedotenko 3 - 2:52 (St. Louis, Sydor) Lecavalier 1 - 16:43 |
Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| (St. Louis, Boyle) Lecavalier 2 - 3:49 (Taylor) Afanasenkov 1 - 7:20 |
Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Nikolai Khabibulin 21 saves / 21 shots | Goalie stats | Jose Theodore 24 saves / 28 shots Mathieu Garon 6 saves / 6 shots |
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| April 25 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 3-1 | Montreal Canadiens | St. Pete Times Forum | Recap | |||
| (St. Louis, Andreychuk) Lecavalier 3 - pp - 2:35 (Richards, Stillman) Modin 4 - 8:33 |
First period | 16:40 - pp - Koivu 3 (Kovalev, Markov) | ||||||
| (Sarich) Lecavalier 4 - 19:57 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Nikolai Khabibulin 26 saves / 27 shots | Goalie stats | Jose Theodore 26 saves / 29 shots | ||||||
| April 27 | Montreal Canadiens | 3-4 | OT | Tampa Bay Lightning | Bell Centre | Recap | ||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| (Markov, Rivet) Kovalev 6 - pp - 9:33 | Second period | 8:41 - sh - Stillman 1 (Kubina, Taylor) 12:24 - pp - Richards 2 (St. Louis) |
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| (Rivet) Ryder 1 - 10:32 (Dowd) Brisebois 2 - 16:13 |
Third period | 19:43 - Lecavalier 5 (Andreychuk, St. Louis) | ||||||
| No scoring | First overtime period | 1:05 - Richards 3 (Modin) | ||||||
| Jose Theodore 24 saves / 28 shots | Goalie stats | Nikolai Khabibulin 28 saves / 31 shots | ||||||
| April 29 | Montreal Canadiens | 1-3 | Tampa Bay Lightning | Bell Centre | Recap | |||
| (Juneau) Sundstrom 1 - 5:46 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | 11:57 - pp - Boyle 1 (Lecavalier, Andreychuk) 17:14 - Richards 4 (Afanasenkov) |
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| No scoring | Third period | 19:04 - en - Modin (Afanasenkov, Andreychuk) | ||||||
| Jose Theodore 21 saves / 23 shots | Goalie stats | Nikolai Khabibulin 27 saves / 28 shots | ||||||
| Tampa Bay won series 4–0 | |
Read more about this topic: 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Conference Semi-finals, Eastern Conference
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