The seven combined goals scored in the first 10 minutes matched an NHL record.
Not slowing down, the Panthers made it 5-3 when Ryan Lomberg buried his career-high 10th goal of the season at 10:33. Celebrating his 600th game in the NHL, Sam Reinhart followed suit with a goal of his own at 12:22 to increase the lead to 6-3. At 13:18, Carter Verhaeghe made it 7-3.
Setting a new franchise record for goals in a period, the Panthers' seven goals are also the second-most ever scored by an NHL team in the first period of a regular-season game, trailing only the eight scored by Montreal more than 100 years ago back on March 8, 1922.
"I've never seen anything like that in 25 years, that many goals" Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "There were more goals than chances to score, and that's a rarity. All I can say is that it completely affected the rest of the game for both teams."
While the second period didn't pack quite the same punch as the first, the Panthers kept piling it on against the Canadiens. After Rafael Harvey-Pinard scored to cut Montreal's deficit to 7-4 at 2:26, Ekblad picked up his second goal when he jammed in a rebound on the power play to make it 8-4 at 5:31.
Earning his fourth point of the game, Tkachuk extended Florida's lopsided advantage to 9-4 when he beat Allen with a laser from the right circle at 7:33. In his last three games alone, Tkachuk has logged 10 points to increase his team-high total to 91 (31 goals, 60 assists).
Coming back into the game, Montembeault replaced Allen after Tkachuk's goal.
With the goals finally drying up, Rem Pitlick scored the lone goal for either team in the third period, lighting the lamp at 5:47 to trim Montreal's deficit down to 9-5. Settling down after a few unlucky bounces in the first period, Bobrovsky stopped 22 of 24 shots over the final 40 minutes for the Panthers.
As the playoff race heats up, the Panthers will take two points any way they can get them.
"We just want to keep it going," Verhaeghe said. "We didn't like our game in the third [period] that much. It was a little tough to play there. We liked our game in the first period and we want to keep on going. We have some areas to clean up, but we want to keep going."