The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning will meet in the postseason for the first time since 2021 and this matchup will come under much different circumstances.

Game 1 in the first-round series is set for Sunday at Tampa, Fla.

Holding the Atlantic Division’s second spot, the Lightning clinched home-ice advantage Tuesday night when the third-place Canadiens lost 4-2 in their regular-season finale against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Tampa Bay right winger Nikita Kucherov produced 130 points (44 goals, 86 assists) in 76 games, falling eight short of Art Ross Trophy winner Connor McDavid, who produced 138 points while playing in all 82 matches for the Edmonton Oilers.

In a season that may produce a second Vezina Trophy, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy went 39-15-4 to lead the NHL in wins. He had a 2.31 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.

Jon Cooper’s Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021, the latter in the Finals over the Canadiens when conference alignment was ditched in an adjusted playoff format because of the pandemic.

The Lightning’s title run was interrupted by three straight Cup appearances and two championships by the archrival Florida Panthers.

“Everybody’s looking for something new, right? For somebody new to win or somebody new to come along,” Cooper said. “But what’s wrong with the team that wants to sit there and maybe throw (the word) ‘dynasty’ around. That’s what we’re looking at.”

A pending unrestricted free agent, defenseman Darren Raddysh had a breakout year running the power play, producing a career-best 22 goals, a franchise record, to go with 48 assists that will lead to a hefty contract in the summer.

The availability of defenseman Victor Hedman, who has not played since March 19, is uncertain.

While Tampa Bay has played in six conference finals and made four trips to the Final under Cooper, coach Martin St. Louis will send out a group of youthful Canadiens that represent early success from a rebuild.

Montreal suits up the NHL’s youngest club with an average just shy of 26 years old, ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres.

The first-round matchup is a classic one of veteran core players versus talented youngsters.

Cole Caufield, 25, produced 51 goals in 81 games, while 22-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky, the No. 1 overall pick in 2022, had 30 tallies and 73 points in 82 matches.

Star defenseman Lane Hutson, also 22, had 12 goals and 66 assists as one of 11 Canadiens to reach double figures in goals.

The squad’s 26-year-old captain from London, Ontario, Nick Suzuki had a career year in becoming the fifth Montreal player to register 100 points, posting 29 goals and 72 helpers en route to a second straight playoff appearance.

Guy Lafleur, Peter Mahovlich, Steve Shutt and most recently Mats Naslund in 1986 hit the century mark.

Suzuki, who played against the Lightning in the 2021 Final, said the Habs have grown since losing in five games to the Washington Capitals a year ago.

“We’ve built our game throughout the whole season, learning different things, individually and as a team,” said Suzuki, who missed Wednesday’s practice to attend the birth of his daughter, Maya. “We’re in a much better spot that we were last year in the playoffs. We’ve matched up well against (the Lightning) the last couple of years.

“There’s no intimidation.”

Montreal went 2-1-1 against Tampa Bay including two victories in the campaign’s final nine games.

–Field Level Media

Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points and James Harden added 22 points and 10 assists, powering the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 126-113 victory over the visiting Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first round series Saturday.

Max Strus had 24 points off the bench and Evan Mobley scored 17 for the fourth-seeded Cavaliers, who have won 11 straight playoff games over the Raptors. Game 2 is Monday in Cleveland, where Toronto is 0-8 all-time in the postseason.

Mitchell extended his league-record streak of scoring 30-plus points in a series opener to nine straight, two more than Michael Jordan had on two occasions. The Cavaliers’ largest lead was 100-76 early in the fourth quarter on a Sam Merrill 3-pointer.

RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Scottie Barnes contributed 21 points and seven assists for the fifth-seeded Raptors. Brandon Ingram added 17 points and Jamal Shead had 17 points in his playoff debut, starting for injured guard Immanuel Quickley (right hamstring strain).

Harden became the fifth player in NBA history to appear in a playoff game in 17 seasons, joining Karl Malone, John Stockton, Tony Parker and Jason Kidd. He also moved past Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird into 13th place in playoff points with 3,917.

Strus made back-to-back 3-pointers and followed with a layup in transition, giving the Cavaliers a commanding 82-60 lead midway through the third. Mitchell recorded 11 points in the period, which saw Toronto held to five made field goals.

Cleveland held a 61-54 advantage at the half, fueled by Harden’s 15 points and six assists and Mitchell’s 13 points and four assists. The Raptors had four players in double figures with Ingram scoring 13 points and Barnes, Barrett and Shead with 11 apiece.

Mitchell had eight points and a pair of assists in the first quarter, including a strip of Shead that he turned into a Strus’ layup at the buzzer and a 35-31 Cavaliers lead. Ingram and Barnes scored nine apiece.

Both teams shot the ball well, but the Cavs buried 16 of 32 from 3-point range. They also enjoyed a significant advantage at 52-36 for points in the pain.

Cavaliers backup center Thomas Bryant (left calf strain) was inactive and has not played since April 5.

–Field Level Media

Goals will be at a premium when two of the top teams in the Western Conference meet Sunday as Los Angeles FC plays host to the San Jose Earthquakes.

Each team allowed just two goals through seven league games to lead MLS. They are also two of four teams in the league with a positive goal differential in double digits.

LAFC (5-1-1, 16 points) will be out to protect a perfect 4-0-0 home record in league play during a busy early part of the season.

In two home games during the first seven days of April, LAFC earned a 6-0 MLS victory over Orlando City and a 3-0 victory over Mexico’s Cruz Azul in CONCACAF Champions Cup play. The club absorbed its only MLS loss, 2-1 on the road against the Portland Timbers, on April 11, then went to Mexico on Tuesday and advanced against Cruz Azul with a 1-1 road tie.

While Denis Bouanga leads LAFC with four goals and eight goal contributions in MLS play, 20-year-old forward David Martinez of Venezuela has six goals across all competitions and scored twice in the first leg against Cruz Azul.

“If you guys would see training, for me it’s normal,” LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said of Martinez’s play. “… When he has space in front of him, he goes and it’s fantastic to watch. He has this quality. David is strong. He seems little, but he’s really strong when he has courage behind him.”

Mired in mediocrity after not delivering a winning season in any of the previous 13 seasons, the Earthquakes (6-1-0, 18 points) have been reborn in just the second season under head coach Bruce Arena.

The Earthquakes are on a four-game winning streak across all competitions and are coming off a 2-0 victory over Phoenix Rising FC on Wednesday in U.S. Open Cup play. The 7-1-0 start across all competitions is the best in club history.

“We’re going to utilize our (full) roster this week,” Arena said. “If we have any aspirations of being a good team, it’s critically important that we can show that we can have depth and we can rotate our squad when it’s called upon.”

San Jose also scored three goals in each of its last two MLS games, earning a road victory over Sporting Kansas City and a home shutout win over San Diego FC on April 4.

Jack Skhan scored a pair of goals against Sporting KC, and Niko Tsakiris scored two against San Diego FC. Preston Judd leads the Earthquakes with three goals on the season, while Tsakiris has four assists.

–Field Level Media