Panthers score 4 in 3rd, cruise past Canadiens

MONTREAL – The Florida Panthers pulled away with four goals in the third period for a 5-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe and Evan Rodrigues each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves for Florida (14-7-2), which was 1-2-1 in its previous four games.

“We had some good looks in the first and second and we didn’t get rewarded. But the third, we did,” Verhaeghe said.

Johnathan Kovacevic scored, and Cayden Primeau made 24 saves for Montreal (10-11-2), which had won three of four to end a five-game (3-2-0) road trip, including a 4-2 victory at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

“The first two periods, I thought we were the better team,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “We gave up some chances there in the third that they capitalized on, and if we get one on the power play in the first, we’re probably feeling a little bit better about our game. I thought honestly, we played pretty well, just a tough third period for us.”

Barkov put the Panthers up 1-0 at 7:07 of the second period when he shot under Primeau’s glove from the left face-off circle on a 2-on-1 after intercepting Gustav Lindstrom’s pass inside the Panthers’ zone.

Sam Bennett made it 2-0 when he scored eight seconds into the third period on a wrist shot past Primeau’s glove from the left face-off circle.

“I just think two kind of fatigued teams that played hard and smart for two periods, and then we got the break we were looking for, and that was the game,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said.

Rodrigues increased the lead to 3-0 at 3:12 with another shot past Primeau’s glove into the top right corner.

“I mean obviously, they scored quick, so it’s tough,” Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “You can think you’re down one, now you’re down two, it makes the challenge a little bit tougher, and then we just didn’t have the pushback that we needed. There was still tons of hockey left, it obviously wasn’t over, it just made the task more difficult.”

Verhaeghe pushed it to 4-0 at 5:49 on a power play, the fourth straight Panthers goal shot past the glove of Primeau.

“We just wanted to shoot the puck,” Verhaeghe said. “We went blocker a couple of times, it didn’t work, so we tried the glove and it worked. I mean it wasn’t really part of the game plan but we wanted to get traffic in front and shoot the puck, for sure.”

Kovacevic made it 4-1 at 9:30, but Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored on a slap shot with 11 seconds remaining for the 5-1 final.

“Goals go in. You could be doing all the right things and they still score in the same spot,” Primeau said. “So, I’m going to have to regroup, obviously look at the video, try to take away anything I can.”

NOTES: Canadiens forward Alex Newhook left early in the third period after crashing into the net. He favored his left leg as he was helped off the ice. There was no update after the game, and he will be evaluated Friday. … The Panthers picked up their sixth road win in November (6-2-1), matching the franchise mark for most in a calendar month. … Barkov scored his 250th career goal, becoming the sixth Finnish-born player in NHL history to reach the mark, joining Teemu Selanne (684), Jari Kurri (601), Tomas Sandstrom (394), Olli Jokinen (321) and Saku Koivu (255). He extended his point streak against Montreal to eight games dating to Jan. 1, 2022. His only longer active run against one franchise is an 11-game stretch against the Washington Capitals. … Ekman-Larsson scored his fifth goal of the month; the only Panthers defenseman to post more in a calendar month is Gustav Forsling (seven in April 2022).