Habs Pound Panthers In Regular Season Finale

     The Florida Panthers completed the regular season as they were blasted the Montreal Canadiens 10-2 on Friday night at Bell Centre. Florida set numerous regular season franchise marks with most points, wins and goals scored along with their best overall record during the 2021-22 season. 

     The Panthers will enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the top seed and can home-ice advantage for all four rounds of the postseason. They will host Game 1 of a first-round series against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. 

     Montreal(22-49-11) jumped out to a 4-0 lead less than 12 minutes into the contest. Florida(58-18-6) cut the deficit to 4-1 on the power play with 1:37 left in the first as Ben Chiarot burned his former club with his ninth tally this season. 

     The Habs scored six unanswered goals during the second and third periods and had a dominant 10-1 lead. Noel Acciari scored for Florida with assists from Chiarot and Ryan Lomberg to to make it 10-2 with 5:05 to go in regulation. 

     Cole Caufield collected a hat trick for the Canadiens. Carey Price won his first game since Game 4 of the 2020-21 Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning.