FLA@MTL: Game recap

MONTREAL – The Canadiens ended a long string of losses against the Panthers, beating Florida 5-3 at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night to close out the season series. 

Before the game, Cayden Primeau was honored as the Molson Cup winner for March. The 24-year-old backstop put up a 3-1-1 record, 1.97 goals-against average, .939 save percentage, and one shutout in five contests last month.

Primeau was not in goal against the Panthers, however. Those duties were assigned to Samuel Montembeault on Tuesday, and he made 37 saves in the win. 

Captain Nick Suzuki scored his 31st and 32nd goals of the season, the latter of which came on the power play. The former, meanwhile, propelled him to the 70-point plateau for the first time in his NHL career. This was also Suzuki’s fourth multi-goal night of the season, and he padded his team lead in power play goals with his 11th of the campaign. 

For more stats, check out the NHL’s Gamecenter summary here.

Roster

Montreal goals

P1 10:12 1-[1] Armia (Pezzetta, Newhook)

P2 05:58 2-[2] Suzuki

P2 12:24 2-[3] Suzuki (Matheson, Newhook) – PPG

P3 00:33 2-[4] Caufield (Slafkovsky, Guhle)

P3 04:34 2-[5] Evans – SHG

Florida goals

P1 09:16 [1]-0 Lundell

P1 13:13 [2]-1 Barkov (Tarasenko)

P3 18:44 [3]-5 Bennett (Kulikov, Lundell)

What’s next

The Canadiens are scheduled to practice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard on Wednesday. They have two games remaining on their five-game homestand, with the Tampa Bay Lightning coming to town on Thursday night and the Toronto Maple Leafs visiting the Bell Centre on Saturday. For tickets to those games, click here.