One night after scoring three points for the first time, Montreal Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier was the difference-maker again, scoring his first hat trick. This time, the French Olympian victimized the Atlantic Division-rival Florida Panthers, as he paced the host Habs to a 6-2 win on Thursday.
Game Recap
As the Canadiens were nursing a 2-1 lead in the second period, after goalie Samuel Montembeault had opened the door to a potential Panthers comeback by gifting Sam Bennett a goal, Texier first made his presence known. He tipped in an Alexandre Carrier shot to restore the two-goal lead, notching the eventual game-winning goal in the process.
Then, in the third, on a two-on-one with Cole Caufield, Texier elected to pass, but got the puck back after it deflected back off the stick of Panthers defenseman Donovan Sebrango. In one fluid motion, he collected the puck and put it past goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 4-1.
Bobrovsky made a modest 14 saves in the contest, whereas Montembeault was the busier of the two, facing 27 saves. Despite his struggles this season and the earlier-mentioned gaffe on which he passed it directly to Bennett, he had a strong game overall. Bennett had to work a bit harder on his second of the game, when he converted an Evan Rodrigues rebound to make it 4-2 with just under 10 minutes remaining. Soon thereafter, on a two-on-one with A.J. Greer, Bennett had a chance for his own hat trick to pull the Panthers within one, but Montembeault closed the door.
Juraj Slafkovsky added an empty-netter, on a technicality, as Carter Verhaeghe broke his stick on a slash as the Canadiens forward was depositing it into the cage. That made it 5-2 to effectively ensure the Habs would pull out the victory, but there was still a little additional business to conduct. With Bobrovsky back in nets, Texier batted a rebound out of the air for his third of the game and seventh of the season, while Oliver Kapanen, who batted his own goal in out of the air, and Noah Dobson rounded out the scoring for the Canadiens.
Both teams were dealing with injuries heading in, with Brad Marchand being the most newsworthy addition to the Panthers’ ward. The Panthers forward is dealing with an undisclosed injury, coincidentally missing time after injuring Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson with a hit to the head the last time these teams faced each other on Dec. 30, resulting in an overtime penalty and a subsequent 3-2 Canadiens win. He nevertheless escaped suspension, while Matheson missed a single game.
Related: Projected Lineups for Panthers vs Canadiens – 1/8/26
The 25-13-6 Canadiens have now won three straight and find themselves atop the Atlantic Division, albeit with the same amount of points as the Detroit Red Wings (who have one more win but also one more game played). They face each other on Saturday at the Bell Centre in a highly anticipated match-up. The 22-18-3 Panthers next visit the Ottawa Senators, also on Saturday.