"No matter who we're playing against, we've got to keep building our game," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. "We've been really good lately. We've just got to find a way to win."
Pushing their point streak to four games, the Panthers erased a two-goal deficit in the third period to earn a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. Trailing 4-2, Marc Staal and Matthew Tkachuk each lit the lamp to get the game to 4-4 and force the extra frame.
In overtime, Mark Scheifele roofed a rebound past Sergei Bobrovsky to win it for Winnipeg.
"Lots of rest this last week for us and some good practice days," said Tkachuk, who leads Florida in goals (30), assists (57) and points (87). "I know we lost the last one, but we were able to come back and get a point in that one. We've just got to ride these last four games and keep getting two points. Now we're the team with games in hand, so we've got to make up for it."
Following that loss to the Jets, the Panthers had four days to rest and recharge.
"It was good to get some practice in, some rest," Panthers forward Anthony Duclair said. "A couple guys have bumps and bruises, so good to get that out of the way and get ready for tonight."
Finding success at both ends of the ice against Montreal this season, the Panthers have come out on top in each of their two previous matchups, winning those games combined score of 13-4.
In their first battle on Dec. 29, Aleksander Barkov led the Panthers with five points -- including a first-period hat trick -- in a 7-2 win. A few weeks later on Jan. 19, Tkachuk scored two goals and Alex Lyon, who relieved an injured Bobrovsky, stopped 23 of 25 shots to lift Florida to a 6-2 win.
Overall, Florida has gone 6-0-0 against the Canadines in Sunrise dating back to 2019.
"We've played pretty solid against them the first two," Tkachuk said of the season series. "I know the one we played them here, Barky had a pretty nice performance for us which set up the rest of the night for us and for the rest of our team. We had a big win in Montreal where Lyon came in and played really well. They've been two pretty different wins, but two complete wins."
At the bottom of the Atlantic Division, the Canadiens snapped out of a seven-game losing streak with an impressive 6-4 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. After falling behind 2-0, Mike Hoffman, Jesse Ylonen, Denis Gurianov and Joel Edmundson scored to put the Canadiens up 4-2.
Following that wild first period, the Penguins scored the only two goals in the second to make it a 4-4 game heading into the third. Anthony Richard then scored just 3:05 into the final frame to put Montreal on top 5-4 before Josh Anderson's empty-netter at 19:25 locked down the 6-4 win.
Despite losing seven of their last eight games, the Canadiens certainly haven't been rolling over. Of those seven losses, five were decided by just one goal, including two defeats in the shootout.
"They're playing with a lot of spirit," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "Even some of the losses they've had have been tight. They're at a point in their program where they're developing ideas and values in their game. … That's a good win for them in [Pittsburgh] in a tough building on back-to-back nights. We'll take them very seriously. We expect to have to be at our best."
Nick Suzuki leads Montreal in scoring with 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists). Leading the team with 26 goals, Cole Caufield's promising season was shut down in January due to a shoulder injury. Third on the team in scoring, Kirby Dach has produced 35 points (12 goals, 23 assists).
While the Canadines have yet to name a starter, both Jake Allen and Sam Montembeault have manned the crease in recent weeks. Allen owns a 14-22-3 record with a .895 save percentage this season, while Montembeault has posted a mark of 13-13-3 with a .905 save percentage.
For the Panthers, Bobrovsky will make his 11th straight appearance between the pipes. Over his last 14 starts, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner has gone 9-4-1 with a .920 save percentage.
"It's the same game plan going into tonight as any other team," Duclair said. "We've got to treat this as a playoff game. … This team has got some skill and got some talent. For us, it's just making sure we're focusing on playing our game, playing hard and not taking them for granted."
