Things started out wrong for Florida(22-20-5) when Alex Lyon made his Panthers debut and replaced an injured Sergei Bobrovsky in net two minutes and one second into the contest. Neither club scored during the opening frame.
The Panthers made it 1-0 on the power play at the 6:30 mark of the second period. Aleksander Barkov released a shot from the right circle that Sam Montembeault saved. Sam Reinhardt snapped a shot from the inner left circle for his 14th goal of the season.
The Cats received another power-play opportunity following a failed Canadiens review on the goal. Florida capitalized on the situation with the man advantage and converted at 8:27. Anton Lindell backhanded a cross-ice pass from the right circle. Gustav Forsling passed ahead from above the left circle and it was redirected in by Sam Bennett from the left of the crease for his 11th goal this season.
Florida put in another power-play tally with 5:02 to go in the period. Brandon Montour smashed a slap shot from the top of the zone that was deflected by Reinhart in the slot area and stopped by Montembeault. Matthew Tkachuk flipped in a forehand shot from the top of the crease.
Montreal(19-24-3) trailed 4-0 with 3:57 left in the second. Radko Gudas angled a pass to his right from the blue line. Givani Smith placed a snap shot from the right-circle dot that went off Nick Cousins in the crease area. Smith hustled in and scored his first goal in a Panthers uniform with a wrist shot from the top of the crease.
It became 5-0 for the Panthers on their fourth power-play goal of the second period with 42.4 seconds remaining. Reinhart pushed the puck from the inner right circle and Tkachuk snapped a shot from the right circle for his second tally of the game and 24th goal of the season.
In the third period, the Habs broke the shutout at the 2:12 mark and were down 5-1. Justin Barron dropped the puck behind his own cage to former Panthers player Mike Hoffman. He skated it to the red line and made an outlet pass to his left. Rem Pitlick carried it to the low left circle and flicked a shot from an acute angle past Lyon for his second goal of the year.
The Canadiens cut the lead to 5-2 at 8:06. Jesse Ylonen sent a diagonal pass from the left point. Pitlick connected a cross-ice pass from the right circle through the slot and Josh Anderson chalked up his 13th goal on a shot from the low left circle.
The Cats increased it to a four-goal margin with 10:49 remaining in the third on their first shot in the final frame. Bennett handed the puck off to Carter Verhaeghe on the right wing. He centered it and Ryan Lomberg guided it in from the top of the crease for his sixth goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment