In Sunrise, Jonathan Huberdeau‘s second goal of the game gave the Panthers a 5-4 lead in the third period over the Montreal Canadiens.
Huberdeau picked up his 70th assist on the season.
“It’s pretty cool, especially doing it against Montreal,” Huberdeau said. “I have a lot of family there, a lot of friends. It’s nice to get milestones, but it’s great to get the win.”
Florida added tow more goals in the period for a 7-4Â win on Tuesday night.
The Panthers blew a 4-1 lead in the middle frame when they watched the Habs rally to tie the 4-4, heading to the third.
“We have so much depth,” Huberdeau said. “We’ve been scoring a lot of goals this year. We set a franchise record [with] 16 games left and we’ve got to focus on that and be better defensively. We know we can score, but we’ve got to be better defensively.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves in the Florida win.
Chris Wideman and Laurent Dauphin had single markers in the Montreal loss.
“It’s not an easy team to face,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “They looked faster than us on the ice and they forced us to turn the puck over and we had a hard time getting the puck out. They gave us a lot of problems executing because of their aggressiveness, their speed, and when they have the puck they don’t give you much. They make good plays.”
The Panthers moved to 45-15-6.
Ryan Lomberg also hit for a pair of goals for the Panthers.
“A little disappointing clock recognition [with] five minutes [left], and giving up three goals is kind of unacceptable,” Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. “But they rallied and showed leadership and came out and did all the right things in the third period.”
Wideman scored in the first period to give Montreal an early 1-0 lead.
The Canadiens dropped to 18-38-11.
Joel Edmundson, Christian Dvorak, and Dauphin also scored in the second period rally for Montreal.
“Yeah, it’s just nice to get the first one of the season and just to get some momentum for our team,” Edmundson said. “And then we scored a couple quick ones right after that, so I was just happy to get it going.”
Sam Bennett also scored for the Panthers.
Mason Marchment scored in the third period to make the score 6-4 for Florida and Aleksander Barkov added an empty-net goal for the 7-4 final.
Jake Allen made 39 saves in the Montreal loss.
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