In Montreal, the visiting Florida Panthers potted four goals in the third period on Thursday night i a 5-1 win over the Canadiens.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves in the win.
“I just think two kind of fatigued teams that played hard and smart for two periods, and then we got the break we were looking for, and that was the game,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said.
Florida improved to 14-7-2.
Following a scoreless first period, Alexander Barkov scored at 7:07 of the middle frame to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
The third period fell in on the Canadiens early when Sam Bennett scored with eight seconds of fresh ice used in the frame for a 2-0 lead to the Panthers.
Montreal dropped to 10-11-2.
“The first two periods, I thought we were the better team,” the Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki said. “We gave up some chances there in the third that they capitalized on, and if we get one on the power play in the first, we’re probably feeling a little bit better about our game. I thought honestly, we played pretty well, just a tough third period for us.”
Evan Rodrigues scored at 3:12 to push the Panthers’ advantage to 3-0.
“I mean obviously, they scored quick, so it’s tough,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “You can think you’re down one, now you’re down two, it makes the challenge a little bit tougher, and then we just didn’t have the pushback that we needed. There was still tons of hockey left, it obviously wasn’t over, it just made the task more difficult.”
Carter Verhaeghe ballooned the lead to 4-0 at 5:49 off a power play strike
“We just wanted to shoot the puck,” Verhaeghe said. “We went blocker a couple of times, it didn’t work, so we tried the glove and it worked. I mean it wasn’t really part of the game plan but we wanted to get traffic in front and shoot the puck, for sure.”
Montreal got on the board at 9:30 to trim the deficit to 4-1, but that was all the Habs could muster on the night.
“Goals go in. You could be doing all the right things and they still score in the same spot,” Primeau said. “So, I’m going to have to regroup, obviously look at the video, try to take away anything I can.”
Oliver Ekman-Larsson added a salt to the wound with a goal with 11 seconds left on the game clock for the 5-1 final.
Cayden Primeau made 24 saves in the loss.
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