Canadiens strive for continued success in clash vs. Panthers
The Montreal Canadiens will look to beat the Florida Panthers for the second time in 10 days when the teams meet in Montreal on Thursday night.
The Canadiens won 3-2 in overtime on the road vs. Florida on Dec. 30, kicking off a stretch in which they have won four of five games. The Canadiens won their second straight game, 4-1 on Wednesday over Calgary in the opener of a four-game homestand.
The Panthers will continue a six-game road trip after beginning with a 4-1 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
For Montreal, Alexandre Texier recorded the first three-point game of his career against the Flames, getting a goal and two assists.
Montreal was scoreless in the first period despite putting 14 shots on goal but broke out for a 3-0 lead in the second.
"I feel like we've been a resilient group," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "To me it's just stay the course, and I think our group has done that. In the past we would get impatient because we felt like we deserve more at the time."
Cole Caufield put the Canadiens ahead 4-1 early in the third period with his 21st goal of the season and added an assist. Lane Hutson and Oliver Kapanen also scored for Montreal, and Jacob Fowler made 28 saves.
"Tonight, we had our fastball. We were very connected and we executed," St. Louis said. "Our balance was so good all over the ice that it was easy to execute because the passes were obvious. We played a very good team game tonight."
Florida fell behind Toronto 3-0 on Tuesday and couldn't mount a serious comeback effort despite outshooting the Maple Leafs 19-6 in the third period.
"We started slow and found a way to get slower, and then when you're down three at that point, the risk profiles of both teams change," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "I didn't like our game tonight at all."
Carter Verhaeghe scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for the Panthers, who are 1-2-1 in their past four games and have two goals or less in each game.
Sam Bennett's career-high nine-game point streak (four goals, six assists) ended in the loss, and Panthers forward Brad Marchand did not return after the second period due to an undisclosed injury.
"He's been dealing with something," Maurice said. "It just got the point we didn't want to make it worse. We're a little sensitive about injuries here now, and do our best to keep guys healthy. So that was a coach's decision."
Marchand is tied for the team lead in goals (23) with Sam Reinhart and has a team-high 46 points. He joins a Panthers injured list that includes Seth Jones (upper body), Aleksander Barkov (knee) and Matthew Tkachuk (lower body).
Tkachuk is traveling with the team and took part in the morning skate on Tuesday without a non-contact jersey.
In the teams' first meeting on Dec. 30, Nick Suzuki scored his second goal of the game during overtime after the Canadiens rallied from two goals down in the third period in Montreal's victory.