The Florida Panthers took the lead three separate times, but couldn’t hold off the Montreal Canadiens, eventually losing 4-3 to the Habs in a shootout at Bell Centre.
Donovan Sebrango created the game-opening goal, going to coast-to-coast and firing a low shot on Jakub Dobes. The Montreal goaler made a fine kick save, only to see Carter Verhaeghe bury the rebound from the left circle at the 9:23 mark.
Ivan Demidov blistered Cole Caufield’s cross by Daniil Tarasov 54 seconds into the middle frame to even the score. Juraj Slafkovský drew the second assist on the power-play marker which came with Tobias Björnfot off for slashing the aforemention Demidov.
Florida regained the lead at 13:43 when a streaking Cole Reinhardt knocked the puck from center into the Canadiens end and caught up to it before pulling Dobes to the ice and finishing on the forehand. Luke Kunin and Seth Jones received assists forworking the puck up to Reinhardt.
Montreal got a little lucky to tie the tilt 6:22 into the third. Noah Dobson took a pass from Adam Engstrom and centered into the slot looking for Oliver Kapanen. The pass was broken up by Dmitry Kulikov, but the puck to came to Phillip Danault and he beat Tarasov with a snapper from between the circles.
The Panthers responded quickly to forge ahead a third time 1:27 later. Jesper Boqvist fedthe puck back to Gustav Forsling at the left point and he slung a wrister towards the cage that was deflected in by Eetu Luostarinen.
Heartbreak happened in the final minute with Dobes off for an extra attacker, when Lane Hutson took a crisp pass from Slafkovský, skated through a hole in the Panthers defense, which forced Tarasov off the near post, and centered back out to Nick Suzuki, who easily deposited the puck into the vacanted net with 21 ticks left on the clock.
Dobes would come up huge in overtime, stopping Mackie Samsoskevich’s initial wrister on two-on-one break and then getting a piece of the rebound with his skate to deny the Cats the win. A frustrated Samsokevich finished with a game-high six shots, but couldn’t one to go.
Montreal would make short work of the Panthers in the shootout to complete the season-series sweep. Caufield opened the skills competition with a five-hole conversion and then Alexandre Texier went top-shelf in the top of the seond round. Dobes denied Luostarinen in the first round and then made a pad save on Sam Bennett to end it.
A spirited effort from the Panthers, who just couldn’t make it to the final buzzer to snap a losing streak which has grown to three games. The well-earned point keeps the Cats at .NHL 500 heading into Thursday night’s tilt in Ottawa, where Florida will try to embrace the spoiler role against a rising Senators team trying to claim the second wild card. Unfortunately, the injury bug bit again as Kulikov joined the broken finger brigade and will miss the remainder of the season. Siri, play the instrumental version of Suicide Is Painless.
The Five Hole
- Carter Verhaeghe’s first strike gave the 30-year-old foward the third 25-goal campaign of his career. Verhaeghe has four goals in his last five games and is now third on the team in scoring with 55 points.
- Eetu Luostarinen’s deft deflection made him the tenth Panther this season to hit double-digit goals. It was Luostarinen’s 28th point of the season, which is the second-highest total of his career.
- Cole Reinhardt’s goal, a beauty, was his second with the Cats since he was claimed after being put on waivers by the Vegas Golden Knights in early March.
- Seth Jones played a game-high 29:27 and his helper gave him points in three-straight games. Jones has gotten on the score sheet in six of Florida’s last eight contests.
- Daniil Tarasov stopped 29 of 32 shots faced to help the Panthers earn their second point of the season against Montreal.
Stat Card
