After Sam Reinhart opened the scoring in the first period to make it 1-0, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe lit the lamp just 21 seconds apart early in the third to make it 3-0. Pulling away, Verhaeghe touched twine again later in the final frame to lock down the 4-0 victory.
"I think it kind of deflated them a little bit," Verhaeghe said of the quick strikes in the third period. "They thought they were still in the game, and getting two quick ones like that and making it 3-0 kind of put things out of reach. [The Senators] played a hard game, give them credit for that."
Standing tall in his final start of the regular season, Spencer Knight stopped all 27 shots he faced to stifle Ottawa's attack. At just 21 years old, he joined Panthers legend Roberto Luongo as the only two rookie goaltenders in franchise history to record multiple shutouts in a season.
Earning victories in nine of his last 12 appearances, Knight finished his first full season in the NHL with a 19-9-3 record, 2.79 goals-against average, .908 save percentage and two shutouts.
"He was solid the whole game," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "I'm proud of our group that we buckled down and kind of had a little bit of a checking mentality where we didn't give up a whole lot in the third period to make sure we got him the shutout. … Going forward, for Spencer to get that shutout in his last start and see what happens later is great."
With one game left to pad stats, Huberdeau leads the Panthers in scoring with a franchise-record 115 points (30 goals, 85 assists), Barkov ranks second with 88 points (39 goals, 49 assists), and Reinhart resides in third with a career-high 82 points (33 goals, 49 assists).
That being said, there's no guarantee any of those players will take the ice in Montreal.
With nothing to be gained from tonight's matchup, the Panthers could be inclined to continue resting some of their top players before the real games begin next week. In addition to Barkov and Huberdeau, Claude Giroux, Gustav Forsling and MacKenzie Weegar all sat last game.
But in their absence, prospects Cole Schwindt, Aleksi Heponiemi and Matt Kiersted all played very well in Ottawa after being rewarded for their strong seasons with call-ups from the AHL.
"They all brought exactly what we needed," said Brunette, who will provide information on tonight's lineup during his pre-game availability at 4:45 p.m. ET. "They brought energy and they brought excitement. I think that's good for our group. It's a long season. That was Game 81, a game that probably doesn't mean a whole lot. To get that energy, I think, excited the guys."
Less than a year removed from making a miraculous run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, the Canadiens occupy last place in the NHL with a record of 21-49-11 and will head into the offseason with the best odds of winning the top selection during the 2022 NHL Draft Lottery.
Snapping out of a nine-game losing streak, Montreal enters tonight's tilt fresh off a 4-3 win over the Rangers in the Big Apple on Wednesday. Tied 3-3 in the third period, Jeff Petry found the back of the net for his second goal of the contest with just 31 seconds left in regulation to make it 4-3.
"We stopped the bleeding tonight, that's for sure," Canadiens interim head coach Martin St. Louis happily said after the watching his team's skid finally come to an end. "It feels good."
Nick Suzuki leads Montreal in goals (21), assists (39) and points (60), while Cole Caufield is second to him in both goals (20) and points (40). After those two, only Mike Hoffman (33), Christian Dvorak (31) and Josh Anderson (30) have hit the 30-point plateau on the team.
Set to make his fifth appearance this season, Carey Price, who has started 23 career games against the Panthers, will get the nod in net for the Canadiens. In his previous four outings, he's posted an 0-4-0 record on top of a 4.04 goals-against average and a .853 save percentage.
Facing off for the fourth and final time this season, the Panthers have gone 3-0-0 against Montreal while leading 16-9 in those contests. Dating back to the 2019-20 campaign, Florida has come out on top in five of its previous six head-to-head matchups against the Canadiens.
Setting a franchise record with 24 wins on the road, the Panthers have posted a 9-2-0 record over their last 11 games away from home while averaging 3.91 goals per game in that stretch.
"We're just trying to play our best and keep building our game," Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen said. "I think it's a good thing for when we start to get going into the playoffs."
