In Montreal, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored in the middle frame to give the visiting Florida Panthers a 2-0 lead over the Canadiens.
The Panthers were not done, they scored three more goals in the frame en route to a 6-2 thrashing of the Habs on Thursday night.
Matthew Tkachuk added a double in the second period outburst.
Sergei Bobrovsky got the start for Florida but left the game with two minutes gone because of an apparent lower body injury\. He did not did not face a shot on goal.
Alex Lyon made 23 saves in relief, it was his first game with the Panthers.
“The guys played great,” Lyon said. “I think you always appreciate when you feel like they’re giving a little of that extra five percent in those types of situations, so I’ve got to give a lot of credit to them.”
“We took two too-many-men penalties; there is no excuse for that,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “That’s a lack of alertness by the players for those penalties. After the first period, we were managing the game, and in the second we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Montreal dropped to 19-24-3.
Givani Smith scored in the second period to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead before Tkachuk bagged his third for a 5-0 advantage headed to the third period.
“I don’t think we had easy legs today and then I thought our game was like our power play,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We had to scratch and claw to get it going, and then it was really good.”
The Panthers were 3-for-6 on the power play.
“They changed the penalty kill between the two games that we played because we put three up on them that night,” Maurice said. “And I would say they were quite a bit more passive in the first game, and then they went to a very aggressive kill. And so, our power play didn’t look good almost until it scored. And that, it’s by design by the PK team.
“They put an awful lot of pressure on you, knocking pucks down and breaking the puck out more that we want to. But we were then able to kind of stay in and make the right play to the net and get the shot tipped and the seam play and things happened.”
Montreal’s Rem Pitlick and Josh Anderson scored in the third period to cut the lead to 5-2.
Ryan Lomberg blunted any rally with a marker at 9:11 for the 6-2 final.
“We didn’t like our second period at all, and being down that many, you’ve got to do something about it,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “And the guys did a good job of being physical, getting in their face. We got two goals there pretty quick and it’s good we battled back, but it was just not a good enough second period by us, and we know we can’t take that many penalties.”
Sam Montembeault made 28 saves in the Habs loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.