Sya hello to third place. The Florida Panthers fell to the Montreal Canadiens by a 4-2 count in a Sunday matinee at Amerant Bank Arena, ending a seven-game winning streak on home ice.
A high-sticking minor, Florida’s second of the period, on Tobias Björnfot led to the Canadiens opening the scoring at the 12:03 mark. After receiving a backhand pass from Nick Suzuki, Calder candidate Lane Hutson fed Patrik Laine in the lower left circle and he blistered a slapper by Sergei Bobrovksy.
Less than a minute later, Sam Reinhart equalized by cutting to the net and beating Samuel Montembeault on the backhand after a pair of Habs flubbed what should’ve been a zone exit. Linemates Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe drew the assists.
The Canadiens would regain the lead 11:27 into the second when birthday boy Juraj Salfkovsky’s centering attempt for Cole Caufield struck Seth Jones and found its way past Bobrovsky. Montreal’s second power-play goal was again set up by Suzuki and Hutson.
After receiving a pass from Barkov, Jones would wire in a shot from just above the right circle to forge another tie with 3:36 left in the frame The secondary assist on the goal went to Evan Rodrigues.
Suzuki and Hutson would each register his third point of the afternoon exactly two minutes into the third. Hutson collected Slafkovsky’s miss wide and whipped a crossing pass to Suzuki, who snapped home the eventual game-winner from the lower portion of the left circle.
The Panthers didn’t mount much of a comeback effort, finishing the final frame with just seven shots, and after a Jones blast was blocked by Christian Dvorak, Brendan Gallagher gathered the puck and sent into the empty net to put his back in the second wild card spot, sending the Cats tumbling into third place.