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 Center Dave Bolland scored the shootout winner to lift the
Panthers to a 3-2 comeback win over the Montreal Canadiens at the
Bell Centre.
With the win, Florida finds itself one point behind the Boston
Bruins, owners of the final wild card spot in the East.
"There's a lot of work to be done," said goaltender Roberto Luongo,
who stopped 37 shots. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We
realize we're in the thick of things, which is exciting and fun for
our group. It sounds cliche, but we really do have to take it one
game at a time."
Goaltender Carey Price stopped 19 shots for Montreal (37-16-5),
which dropped its second straight.
"We gave ourselves an opportunity to win the hockey game and I
thought we played really well," defenseman P.K. Subban said. "An
unfortunate bounce at the end of that penalty kill put them back in
the game but in the shootout, anybody can win."
Right winger Brendan Gallagher scored twice in regulation for the
Canadiens. Left winger Tomas Fleischmann and defenseman Steven
Kampfer replied for Florida (26-19-12).
Gallagher's 100th career point started the scoring at 2:31 of the
second period.
The feisty winger carried the puck just inside the Florida blue line
before dishing off to left winger Max Pacioretty. Luongo made the
save, but Gallagher, driving to the net, was there for the rebound
and snuck it under the netminder's pad for his 14th goal of the
season.
Gallagher added his second goal 10 minutes later. After Luongo
stopped Subban's shot from the right circle, the puck sat loose in
the crease and Gallagher was there to cash in, lifting it into the
net.
The Panthers took advantage of a Canadiens miscue to get on the
board. Price's clearing attempt was intercepted by the visitors, who
took several shots from the slot before Fleischmann tossed one in
from the high slot at 11:54.
Montreal had its chances to extend its lead, outshooting Florida
27-13 through 40 minutes but Luongo was up to the task.
"He's a good goalie," Gallagher said. "You expect him to make saves.
He played really and made some big saves, especially when we were up
two goals. When the goalie can shut the door like that, you've got
to give him credit. But at the same time, there's always ways to
beat him and always ways to score."
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Kampfer tied it 2-2 with his first goal of the season at 4:57 of the
third period. As time expired on a penalty to defenseman Jarred
Tinordi, Fleischmann fed his teammate with a nifty pass from behind
the net between the goal line and left circle for a bad-angle shot.
"(Credit) goes to Flash," Kampfer said. "The play that he had,
taking it behind the net and giving me a couple of extra seconds to
get into position to shoot was huge. Definitely the whole play goes
to him.
"I just saw right over (Price's) pad and I was lucky to get it over
him."
NOTES: Injured during the first shift of the game of Wednesday's
loss at Ottawa, Montreal D Alexei Emelin (upper body) did not play
against Florida and will be re-evaluated next week, coach Michel
Therrien said. D Jarred Tinordi was called up to take Emelin's place
and D P.K. Subban was in his usual spot alongside D Andrei Markov
after blocking a shot against Ottawa. ... Canadiens LW Alex
Galchenyuk was a late scratch with the flu, leaving D Mike Weaver as
the lone healthy scratch. ... Panthers C Aleksander Barkov played in
his 100th game. ... Florida D Dmitry Kulikov served the third game
of his four-game suspension. ... The Panthers scratched LW Sean
Bergenheim for the fourth straight game.
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