Panthers In Montreal Looking To Bounce Back From Tough Loss
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MONTREAL (CBSMiami/SportsDirect) – The Florida Panthers have to keep moving forward, especially after the way their last game ended.
With two straight victories in their pocket and a two-goal lead after 40 minutes on Monday, it appeared as if the Panthers were ready to regain first place in the Atlantic Division.
But Florida gave up three goals in a 5 1/2-minute span of the third period and lost to the New York Islanders, keeping it one point behind Boston as it enters Tuesday's game against the host Montreal Canadiens.
The Panthers, who are even in points with second-place Tampa Bay, lost five of their six contests prior to the back-to-back triumphs before Monday's loss.
Montreal is wrapping up its four-game homestand after having a two-game winning streak snapped. The Canadiens fell to 2-1-0 on the stretch with Saturday's setback against Minnesota as they lost for the fifth time in their last seven overall contests.
Florida posted a 3-1 victory over Montreal at home on Dec. 29 in the opener of the team's four-game season series, which concludes with two contests over the first five days of April.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Florida, Sportsnet, RDS (Montreal)
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (38-22-9): Jaromir Jagr played in his 1,616th career game Monday, passing Hall-of-Fame defenseman Larry Murphy for eighth place on the all-time list.
Vincent Trocheck was kept off the scoresheet by the Islanders after notching a goal and five assists over his previous three games to earn the NHL's Second Star of the Week honors.
Jussi Jokinen, who leads the team with 37 assists and trails Jagr (53) for first on the club by three points, recorded two goals and 10 assists during a 10-game point streak that ended Monday.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (32-31-6): P.K. Subban (neck) sat out Saturday's loss, missing a game for the first time since Jan. 30, 2013.
Thanks to the defenseman's injury, the number of Canadiens to appear in every contest this season shrunk to four - Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk, captain Max Pacioretty and blue-liner Andrei Markov.
Defenseman Mark Barberio has collected four points in his last four games, leaving him one shy of his career high of 10 set in 2013-14 with Tampa Bay.
OVERTIME
- Galchenyuk was kept off the scoresheet Saturday after recording three straight two-goal performances to overtake Pacioretty for the team lead in tallies with 25.
- Florida is 3-7-2 in its last 12 road games.
- Pacioretty has collected a goal and five assists during his four-game point streak.
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