Kirby Dach scored twice and rookie Jakub Dobes made 33 saves in his first NHL appearance as the Montreal Canadiens handed the Florida Panthers an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Amerant Bank Arena.
The first period belonged to the defense and goaltenders. Spencer Knight and Dobes, who each made eight saves to keep the game scoreless.
Montreal would strike 1:39 into the second, when Kirby Dach got a stride on Dmitry Kulikov and Alex Newhook’s cross clanked off his skate and into the back of the net after Dach whiffed on his attempt to one-time the puck. Kaiden Guhle drew the secondary assist on Dach’s third of the season.
Dach would pot another at the 13:51 mark after Newhook sent him in alone on Knight and the big forward went upstairs on the backhand to finish the breakaway.
Florida finally got a power play late in the frame and instead of cutting the deficit they surrendered a unassisted shorthanded goal to Jake Evans, who roofed a shot blocker-side on Knight at 17:19 after a Sam Reinhart turnover.
Cole Caufield hammered the final nail into the Panthers coffin when he blew by Aaron Ekblad and beat Knight after receiving a fine crossing pass from Juraj Slafkovsky with 5:43 left in the regulation.
After getting shut out on Monday on home ice against Tampa Bay, the Panthers laid another egg against Montreal, who won for the fourth time in their last five games. Yeah, the Cats managed to put 33 shots on Dobes, but too many of them were from the periphery and straight into the rookie goaltender. That marks the fourth time in the last eight games that the Panthers have been blanked. Yuck!
Hab & Hab Nots
- Hell of a debut for Jakub Dobes, who sports a 9-3-1 record and 2.44 GAA with the AHL’s Laval Rocket. Dobes was selected by the Canadiens in the fifth round (136th overall) of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
- Kirby Dach doubled his goal output, going from two to four, and Alex Newhook collected his first two assists of the season on Montreal first two markers.
- Anton Lundell, Dimtry Kulikov, Gustav Forsling and former Panther Mike Matheson each registered a game-high four shots on goal.
- Spencer Knight finished with 21 saves on 25 shots and dropped to 6-6-1 on the season.
- Both teams went 0-for-1 on the power play, but Jake Evans’ shorty helped the Canadiens cruise to their first win in Sunrise since December 28, 2018.
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