The Florida Panthers capitalized twice in five chances with the extra skater, outscoring the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Aleksander Barkov (28), Nick Bjugstad (PP, 15), Greg McKegg (2), and Jiri Hudler (PP, 16) each lit the lamp for the Panthers. Assists were awarded to Jaromir Jagr (37, 38), Teddy Purcell (27, 28), Jonathan Huberdeau (39), Shawn Thornton (4), Aaron Ekblad (21) and Jakub Kindl (6). Roberto Luongo was solid between the pipes, stopping 32-of-33 shots for the win.
The Canadiens would see their lone goal midway through the second, when Alex Galchenyuk (28) earned a marker with helpers from Max Pacioretty (32) and Brendan Gallagher (18). Mike Condon only faced 19 Panthers’ shots on the night, but took the loss by allowing four of them to get by.
Not only did the Panthers win the game, they clinched their second ever division title. The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the New York Rangers in regulation, and now cannot possibly earn more than 99 points with what is left of their regular season. The other time the Cats claimed the pennant was in 2011-12.
I only get to use the term “penultimate” once per season, but that time is now here. The Cats will play the Ottawa Senators in their next game, the penultimate contest of the regular season. That’s Thursday night.
Eyes On The Prize has more on the Habs. Check back here in the morning for the AM Recap, check later in the day (and Thursday) for our award winning Caterwauls, and spend some time with us in the not-dull-for-a-moment GameThread, Thursday night at around 7PM.