Montreal Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak’s 100th career goal came at an opportune time. He scored the go-ahead insurance marker midway through the third period as the Habs held on to beat the visiting Florida Panthers 3-1 on Saturday.
Dvorak tipped home a David Savard point shot off a Sam Bennett turnover to close the scoring. Turnovers had been a problem all game for the Panthers, one having them dearly earlier.
Game Recap
With the Canadiens leading 1-0 in the first, Juraj Slafkovsky corralled an errant Aleksander Barkov pass deep in the Panthers’ zone. Slafkovsky proceeded to find an open Cole Caufield who beat Panthers starter Sergei Bobrovsky from a difficult angle for his team-leading 33rd goal of the season.
That proved to be the game-winning goal. However, the Canadiens had come close to scoring five minutes earlier when they had one called back. Alex Newhook finished off a give-and-go with Nick Suzuki, only for the Panthers to successfully challenge the goal due to goaltender interference on the part of Brendan Gallagher.
Meanwhile, Mackie Samoskevich got the Panthers on the board early in the second thanks in part to interference that went uncalled. Bennett got in front of defenseman Mike Matheson, leaving Samoskevich free to find his way from behind the net and beat Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault.
Overall, Montembeault made 21 saves to Bobrovsky’s 12. None were bigger than the one Montembeault made on the Carter Verhaeghe shot he snagged from out of the air with his glove with two and a half minutes remaining in the game and the Panthers on the power play after Dvorak got sent off for high-sticking. It was a critical point in the game, but Dvorak remained the relative hero in this one, thanks to his goal, with sole exception perhaps to Montembeault.
Patrik Laine, who’s been the subject of unsubstantiated rumours and criticism over his effort level recently, opened the scoring with a power-play goal. Caufield tallied an assist on the goal, for two points on the night, the most of any skater. The Panthers were without defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who sat out his third of 20 total games, after having gotten suspended for violating the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
Related: Projected Lineups for the Panthers vs Canadiens – 3/15/25
The 32-27-7 Canadiens look to take advantage of Ekblad’s absence again when they next play the Panthers in a home-and-home series to end March, start April. The Habs next host the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, in a battle of two teams vying for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The Sens also won on Saturday night, as they lead the Canadiens by six points with the same amount of games played. The Rangers also won, to hold down the second wild-card spot, one point up on the Habs, with one more game played. The 41-23-3 Panthers travel to New York to play the Islanders tomorrow, on the fourth leg of their six-game road trip.
