Panthers Pride Tops Habs

With many of their veterans sidelined by injuries, a pair of rookies led the way for the Florida Panthers.

Mark Parrish and Marcus Nilson each scored as the Panthers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday night.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," said Nilson, who was called up from New Haven of the AHL on April 5. "I probably won't feel it until tomorrow. Every day here is a big thrill."

The Panthers won for the first time in 21 overtime games (1-2-18). The Panthers broke an 0-4-1 slump at home.

The loss extended the Canadiens road winless streak to six (0-5-1).

Florida, missing 10 regulars due to injuries, tied it with 3:27 left in the third period when Parrish, who leads NHL rookies with 24 goals, redirected Radek Dvorak's pass past Canadiens goaltender Frederic Chabot.

"I was lucky enough to get a piece of it," said Parrish, 22, who is four ahead of Colorado's Chris Drury for the rookie lead. "Most teams here have to rely on veterans, so for us this was one night the rookies came through."

Nilson received an assist on the tying goal for his first NHL point. He topped that in overtime when he fought off two Canadiens defensemen and swatted the bouncing puck past Chabot. Robert Svehla flicked the puck high in the air to set up the 21-year-old Swede, who was playing in his eighth NHL game.

"He dove on it and I was just trying to get it over him," Nilson said. "I didn't see it go in. I gambled and went for it."

Fellow rookie Filip Kuba also assisted on the winning goal for his first NHL point.

Chabot, who had 28 saves while filling in for injured starter Jeff Hackett, was upset about blowing a lead. It was only the second win or Florida all season when trailing after two periods (2-27-8).

"It's a tough loss and not fun when you lose a lead going into the third," Chabot said. "On a flip you never know if the bounce is going up or down."

The Canadiens broke a scoreless tie with a breakaway at 18:19 of the second period when Turner Stevenson lifted the puck over goalie Kirk McLean from an awkward angle.

Florida tied it 34 seconds into the third period on Scott Mellanby's slap shot from the right faceoff circle. "Pride is still a factor for us," said Mellanby, who scored his 18th goal of the season. "Things went bad for us at the end, but we don't want two weeks to sour our season."

Brian Savage's wrist shot at 4:55 of the third period beat McLean to give Montreal a 2-1 lead.

"That's how the year has gone, especially the way it went in," Savage said. "It was basically a good effort for him (Nilson) getting that chip shot over our goaltender."

With one game remaining, it appears likely that the Canadiens will not produce a 20-goal scorer for the first time since the 1940-41 season. Martin Rucinsky leads Montreal with 16 goals.

The last time Montreal (31-38-12) lost so many games was 1983-84 (35-40-5).

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