RECAP: Canadiens 3, Panthers 1

MONTREAL – In the first half of their back-to-back, the Florida Panthers fell behind early and couldn’t recover in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

While the Panthers remain atop the Atlantic Division at 41-23-3, the Canadiens still find themselves just one point out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference at 32-27-7.

“They beat us,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “They’re in a fight for their lives and played their butts off tonight. That should be the story here. I don’t want to give you an honest assessment of our game because I don’t want to be disrespectful of a big win for them.”

On the power play, the Canadiens broke the ice when long-time sniper Patrik Laine beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a shot from the right circle to make it 1-0 at 5:15 of the first period.

After exiting early, Anton Lundell returned midway through the period for Florida.

Back on the power play, the Canadiens thought they doubled their lead to 2-0, but after a successful challenge for goaltender interference by the Panthers the score was taken off the board.

Getting some good karma, officials missed an interference by Montreal moments earlier.

After an unlucky turnover by the Panthers in their own zone, the Canadiens capitalized when Cole Caufield buried a shot from the right side of the net to make it 2-0 at 15:56.

“They came out hot,” forward Mackie Samoskevich said. “Give them credit.”

Cutting the deficit in half for the Panthers in the second period, Samoskevich, who’s been on absolute fire as of late, carried the puck around Montreal’s cage, curled back and fired a wicked wrist shot past Sam Montembeault to make it 2-1 at 3:51.

On a nice run, the 22-year-old rookie has netted six goals in his last 11 games.

In that stretch, he’s scored a goal every other game.

“Just keep doing what I’m doing,” Samoskevich said. “Learn from the bad ones and learn from the good ones as well. There’s always something you can learn from games. I think just stick with the process."

On the penalty kill late in the middle frame, Gustav Forsling kept the Panthers within striking distance with an incredible defensive play. With Bobrovsky pulled out of his crease, the talented Swede denied Juraj Slafkovsky on a wide-open net with an outstanding sick.

“That’s insane,” forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “He’s such a good defenseman, so good defensively with such a good stick. If anyone’s going to do that, it’s definitely Gus.”

Putting a damper on a comeback for the Panthers, Christian Dvorak increase Montreal’s lead in the third period when he tipped in a shot from David Savard make it 3-1 at 8:11.

Earning a late power play, the Panthers pulled Bobrovsky for a 6-on-4 advantage with roughly three minutes left in regulation. Coming up in the clutch for Montreal, Montembeault robbed Verhaeghe with his glove on a shot from the slot to save a goal.

That was one of six saves for Montembeault in the final three minutes.

“They’re a really good team and tried to send a message,” Verhaeghe said. “I think it’s just up to us to get mentally ready for every game and think it’s a playoff game every game.”

THEY SAID IT

“I don’t want to tell you how I thought we played because I want to be respectful of the effort from Montreal. They played hard and fast. I can’t really give you an assessment of how good that was because I’m not sure it relates to how we played. I think we own that one. Our play, that was on us. We’d have to play considerably better before I can assess what the other team did to us.” – Paul Maurice on tonight’s loss

“We’ve got to know they’re going to come out hot and be more ready for it. I think it’s a good lesson.” – Mackie Samoskevich on Montreal’s strong first period

“He’s a really good goalie. We needed to get more traffic in front of him to be able to be successful. He’s going to make some save sometimes, and it’s up to bear down and bury them.” – Carter Verhaeghe on Sam Montembeault’s performance

CATS STATS

- The Panthers had 24 of their shots blocked.

- Aleksander Barkov won a team-high 10 faceoffs.

- Seth Jones recorded a team-high five hits.

- Jesper Boqvist skated in his 300^th NHL game.

- The Panthers led 47-41 in shot attempts at 5-on-5.

WHAT’S NEXT?

No rest for these Cats.

Closing out their back-to-back, the Panthers will drop the puck with the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

To find a place to watch the game in South Florida, click HERE.