(Montreal) The Canadian quickly found his way back to victory by putting to rest one of his pet peeves on Tuesday evening at the Bell Centre.
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Nick Suzuki scored two goals, Samuel Montembeault stopped 37 shots and the Montreal hockey club defeated the Florida Panthers 5-3.
The Canadian ended a series of seven defeats against the Panthers. The latter had the advantage 39-16 in terms of goals scored during this sequence.
The Habs, however, had another good match against one of the best teams on the circuit. He limited the damage in his territory despite some costly errors and showed opportunism in attack.
Cole Caufield, Joel Armia and Jake Evans also scored for the Canadian (29-33-12), who has won four of his last five games. Alex Newhook had two assists.
Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett responded for the Panthers (47-24-5), who had lost 6-4 the day before to the Maple Leafs in Toronto. Anthony Stolarz stopped 34 shots.
Defenseman Kaiden Guhle was back in the Canadiens lineup after serving a one-game suspension for slashing Travis Konecny of the Philadelphia Flyers. Johnathan Kovacevic was left out.
For the Panthers, Matthew Tkachuk was not in uniform because he was ill.
The Panthers also lost the services of defender Aaron Ekblad late in the first period. He appeared to injure himself during an argument with Juraj Slafkovsky after a whistle.
The Canadian will play his next game on Thursday, when the Tampa Bay Lightning will visit the Bell Centre.
Another effort rewarded
The two teams studied each other at the start of the game and the Panthers finally opened the scoring after 9:16 of play. Josh Anderson and Jayden Struble let Lundell slip away, who beat Montembeault with a nice feint.
This goal seemed to whip the Canadian. Armia orchestrated a two-on-one attack, but his pass to Newhook lacked precision.
Armia himself tied the game at 10:12. He took advantage of a comeback after a throw from Michael Pezzetta.
The Panthers took the lead again with 6:47 left in the first period. Vladimir Tarasenko joined Barkov, forgotten in the enclave. The Finnish center also served up a clever feint to Montembeault, who was wrong-footed.
The Canadian got 58 seconds of play on a two-man power play late in the first period. Stolarz made his best save by stretching his right leg to frustrate Suzuki.
A Brendan Gallagher effort on a return almost allowed the Canadian to tie the game early in the second period. However, replays confirmed that the puck had not crossed the goal line.
It was only a postponement for the Canadian. Suzuki made it 2-2 at 5:58 of the second period. He intercepted a pass from Dmitry Kulikov in the slot in Panthers territory, then beat Stolarz with a low glove-side shot.
Suzuki came back with 7:36 left in the second period, on the power play. He deflected a long Mike Matheson shot into the goal.
Caufield widened the gap to 4-2 after just 33 seconds of play in the third period. He outpaced Stolarz by going around the back of the net.
Evans dealt the final blow by scoring shorthanded at 4:34. He beat Stolarz on the side of the shield on a breakaway.
Montembeault took care of the rest, even if Bennett beat him with just 1:16 left on the clock.