RECAP: Panthers net five goals in second period to cruise past Canadiens

Alex Lyon stopped 23 shots and the power play struck four times to help the Florida Panthers secure a big two points with a 6-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.
"A great all-around game," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. "We came ready to play. Our power pay was really good. Lyon was great coming in. Guys were sticking up for each other."

Owning a 6-2-1 record over their last nine games, the Panthers have clawed their way, at the time of this writing, back into two points of a playoff spot with an overall record of 22-20-5.
With their three-game road trip in the books, the Panthers picked up five out of a possible six points.
"We're extremely proud to get five out of fix points on this road trip," Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg said. "Having said that, it doesn't matter if we don't keep building off it. We're looking forward to getting home and playing Minnesota and then heading back on the road."
Called into action just 2:01 into the first period after Sergei Bobrovsky exited the game with a lower-body injury, Lyon was immediately put to the test when he came up with a clutch save on a one-timer from Montreal sniper Cole Caufield on the power play to keep the game scoreless.
"Your legs are a little shaky and you're just trying to focus on the things that make you yourself," said Lyon, who played in just 24 games in the NHL prior to making his debut with the Panthers. "Getting a couple big saves early can give you a lot of confidence. I just tried to build off that."
Following a scoreless first period, the Panthers finally broke through on the power play in the second period when Sam Reinhart got a rebound and fired a shot past Sam Montembeault, who made a few highlight-reel stops moments earlier, and into the cage after to make it 1-0 at 6:30.
Back on the power play after a failed challenge by the Canadiens, the Panthers doubled their lead when Bennett deftly tipped in a shot from Gustav Forsling to make it 2-0 at 8:27. Not done there, Matthew Tkachuk then deposited a power-play goal of his own to make it 3-0 at 14:58.
Prior to Tkachuk's goal, Lyon made arguably his biggest save of the game when he laid out to absolutely rob Caufield of what looked like a surefire goal from the left circle on the power play.

"He made a big save and the bench goes wild," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said.
Netting his first goal with the Panthers, Givani Smith, acquired from the Red Wings last month, extended the lead even further when he followed up on his own shot, plucked the rebound out of a pile of players in front of the net and fired the puck past Montembeault to make it 4-0 at 16:03.
Matching a franchise record with their fourth power-play goal of the period, Tkachuk capped off the historic middle frame with an exclamation point when he took a pass from Reinhart, walked the puck into the right circle and ripped shot off the far post and in to make it 5-0 at 19:17.
The goal also marked Florida's 12th five-goal period in franchise history.
"The last seven or eight games, I think we've really found our game," Bennett said. "We're starting to find some confidence. We're definitely having a lot of fun playing hockey right now."
Not going down without a fight, Rem Pitlick and Josh Anderson both scored at 2:12 and 8:06, respectively, of the third period to cut Montreal's deficit to 5-2. Speaking of fighting, there was also a lot of that. Over the final 20 minutes, Tkachuk, Smith and Ryan all dropped the gloves.
That aggression stemmed from an incident in the first period when Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson knocked Panthers forward Eric Staal out of the game with a questionable hit.
After the game, Maurice said both Bobrovsky and Staal would be re-evaluated on Friday.
At 9:11, Lomberg put the game out of reach when he re-directed a pass from Carter Verhaeghe past Cayden Primeau, who relieved Montembeault to start the period, to put Florida on top 6-2.
"When you get a guy with that amount of respect in the locker room, a real veteran, a true pro and a leader, to see him get hit like that definitely lit a bit of fire under us," Lomberg said when asked about how the hit on Staal affected the rest of the game. "We wanted to make sure we got the two points because ultimately that's what he wanted us to do."

CATS QUOTES

"Happy for him. Smitty's a workhorse. He works extremely hard day in, day out, so to see him get rewarded like that, he deserves it. It was great to see." -- Ryan Lomberg on Givani Smith's first goal with the Panthers
"I can't imagine that's easy coming in cold to a game. He did a heck of a job and really gave our whole bench a lot of energy. That was a great job by him, for sure." -- Sam Bennett on Alex Lyon's performance
"You can tell sometimes the chemistry in the room by the reaction to something like that. They're trying to be disciplined because we're not in a position to run around here. We've got to win games, but they take care of their own." -- Paul Maurice on how players reacted to the incident with Eric Staal

CATS NOTES

• Florida is the first team in the NHL to score four power-play goals in a period in 2022-23.
  - Sam Reinhart racked up a team-high three points (one goal, two assists).
  - Sam Bennett has scored three goals over the last six games.
  - Aleksander Barkov extended his point streak to six games.
  - Josh Mahura owned a team-high 75 CF% at 5-on-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
  - Alex Lyon went a perfect 7-for-7 against high-danger shots.
  - Radko Gudas led the Panthers in hits (5) and blocked shots (4).
  - The Panthers went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (22-20-5) will look to get even closer to a playoff spot when they head home to host the Minnesota Wild (25-15-4) at FLA Live Arena on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.
For tickets, click HERE.