"I thought they were good," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "It's a hard situation to come in, especially with Ben having no practice and [just a] morning skate. We knew it was going to take them a little bit to get accustomed, but I thought they fit in well. It was nice to see them on the ice together. Now we'll work to get a little chemistry and a rhythm with them."
As the playoff push starts to heat up, the Panthers now sit at 43-14-6 and hold a seven-point lead over both the Maple Leafs and Bruins, as well as an eight-point lead over the Lightning.
"I think they did a really good job coming in and filling the void," Panthers forward Anthony Duclair said. "Those guys are going to be huge additions moving forward. We're really excited and happy to get them on board and think we can do something special with them."
Giving the goal horn an early workout, the Canadiens opened the scoring just 29 seconds into the first period when Nick Suzuki buried a shot on the power play to make it 1-0. But just seven seconds later, Aleksander Barkov sniped a shot of his own right past Jake Allen to make it 1-1.
Putting the Panthers on top in the second period, Mason Marchment tracked down his own rebound and swept the puck into the net from on the doorstep to make it 2-1 at 1:12. Getting things all square once again, Jake Evans scored for the Canadiens to make it 2-2 at 5:59.
A little over a minute later, Duclair broke that brief deadlock when he stuck up his stick and tipped in a long point shot from Chiarot to give the Panthers a 3-2 advantage at 7:06.
"It feels good," said Chiarot, who was suiting up for Montreal roughly two weeks ago. "At the beginning it was breaking off a little bit of the rust there, myself and the team. They haven't played in a while, and same goes for me. Once we got going, we controlled the puck really well."
Helping to maintain that lead later in the middle frame, Spencer Knight, with the action in front of him at 4-on-4, made easily one of the top saves of his young career when he absolutely robbed Rem Pitlick of what looked like a surefire goal with a diving paddle save to keep the rubber out.
"That was kind of a momentum shift," Duclair said of the huge stop, one of 28 for Knight in the game. "We grew a lot of confidence after, knowing Knighter was making stops like that. We see him every day in practice, so we know he's a really talented goalie. We're lucky to have him."
Netting what would go on to hold up as the game-winning goal on the power play in the third period, Sam Reinhart finished off a smooth give-and-go with Jonathan Huberdeau, who had a stunning no-look setup dish, by roofing a shot past Allen to extend Florida's lead to 4-2 at 7:20.
Over his last seven games, Reinhart has notched six goals.
