Two struggling teams face off when the Montreal Canadiens visit the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
Montreal managed to break a three game slump on Tuesday when it took down the Tampa Bay Lighting 4-3 in the shootout. Montreal jumped out to a 3-0 thanks to goals from Brian Gionta, P.K. Subban, and Travis Moen. However, the Lightning battled back and drew even in the final two minutes of the third to send the game to overtime. The Canadiens eventually managed to win the game in the shootout. Despite the near-collapse, Coach Michel Therrien was happy with the effort. "You know what? We came to win this hockey game, and this is what we did," Therrien said. "And we were almost perfect for 54 minutes. We opened the door. We will learn from it."
Goalie Carey Price made 21 saves in the effort. "At the end of the day, as long as we're getting wins, that's what really matters," Price said. "But, it would be nice to close out one, that's for sure."
The Florida Panthers are coming off two tough losses to the Washington Capitals and are falling behind in the defense of their Southeast Division crown. The team was shutout 5-0 in the first game against the Capitals but managed to battle to a 6-5 overtime loss in the second match. The Panthers held a 5-3 lead with a little over five minutes to play in regulation and imploded for three straight goals against.
"We had a good second period," said rookie Jonathan Huberdeau. "We were flying, scored a couple. We just have to be better defensively. In the third, we let go of the all the good things we did in the second."
Huberdeau scored a pair of goals for Florida who also got contributions from Tomas Fleischmann, Shawn Matthias, and Drew Shore; Shore scored his first career goal in the match.
"It's disappointing coming in a loss," Shore said of his goal. "I'd trade it for a win any day, but it was nice to get the first one."
The Canadiens and Panthers met on Jan. 22; Montreal won that game 4-1;
Predictions: Montreal wins the game 4-1.
Start Time: 7:30 PM EST
TV: TSN-HABS, RDS, FS-F
Watch Live Stream HERE.
Follow Live Score HERE.
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