First period
- An excellent shift from the Christian Dvorak backed up by Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle. Hutson pulls off one his best moves yet to slide into the slot and get a shot off that requires a blocker save from Vitek Vanecek.
- Montreal is looking very good tonight. Lots of offensive creativity to get into good shooting positions.
- Nico Sturm and A.J. Greer collide hard right on the centre-ice faceoff dot, and Sturm stays down after some hard head contact on the play, and has gone to the room.
- Hutson passes the puck across the length of the blue line, Guhle sends it toward a screen in front of the net, and Josh Anderson makes a perfect tip of the shot to open the scoring.
That's a deflection goal for the Power Horse and the Habs are up 1-0! Also, another Lane Hutson assist…Typical
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 8:20 PM
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- Hutson now has 60 points, and 55 assists.
- Florida gets on the board, and of course it’s Niko Mikkola who gets credit for the goal on a deflection off Jake Evans stick and inside the near post. The hockey gods can be cruel sometimes.
- Vanecek makes a great save on a point-blank shot from Anderson.
- Florida puts the puck in the net, but Greer propels it in with his foot. The goal is immediately waved off. Then, after discussion, the call is overturned. Then after a short review, the reversed call is reversed. So no goal after all.
- Anderson gets another scoring chance from close range. The Panthers are having a hard time keeping track of him.
- Montreal deserved to be be leading after their play that period, but they will take a 1-1 tie while outplaying Florida I think.
Second period
- Newhook earns himself another rush chance, but had to shoot from too far out for it to be dangerous.
- Aleksander Barkov gets called for interference while in the offensive zone. He hasn’t looked like himself in these two games. I think he may have come back from injury too soon.
- The power play can’t really find the setups it wants. Laine is relegated to taken a couple of shots from distance and not from his office.
- Mikkola had Montembeault down and the ice and looking the wrong way, but hits the side of the net. Apparently those hockey gods were just waiting.
- Eric Engels has reported that Barkov has gone to the room, so that confirms he’s still dealing with something.
- Montreal keeps breaking away with speed and getting shots, but they haven’t been able to make the perfect cross-ice pass to create a second goal.
- The ref standing 10 feet away from Emil Heineman as his check goes down doesn’t raise his arm. the one 100 feet away at centre ice does.
- Jake Evans gets a short-handed chance, but Seth Jones reaches around and knocks the puck away, sending Evans clattering into the post.
- Florida scores on the power play.
- Montreal is right back on the penalty kill as Juraj Slafkovský gets his stick in the hands of Mikkola. Two penalty from Montreal right near the opposing goal line.
- Not as strong a period for Montreal and they pay for a late penalty. They’ll need a third-period comeback to get this win.
- But the game will be at four-on-four coming out of the intermission because Sam Bennett just took a roughing penalty.
Third period
- Montreal gets a brief power play after the four-on-four ends, and it’s an utter disaster. The Habs leave the whole defensive open open and Laine has to scramble back to slash Barkov to prevent a prime scoring chance.
- Guhle joins a short-handed rush with Evans gets the puck, but he is too far to the outside of the zone to take advantage of all the space that had opened up.
- Dvorak gets tripped coming out of the zone, and Montreal has a great chance to tie this game up.
- Just one shot for Laine as the Canadiens couldn’t get set up in the positions they wanted.
- Montreal is having a difficult time getting into the offensive zone now.
- Suzuki is about to accept a pass from behind the net and fire a shot from 15 feet, but Barkov gets his stick on it.
- Down to five minutes for Montreal to find some offence.
- Suzuki makes a great saucer pass over Nate Schmidt, but Newhook decides to try to pass it back, and what would have been Montreal’s best chance of the period doesn’t result in a shot.
- With eight seconds to play, it’s Hutson and Suzuki who come up clutch. A brief moment of panic is swallowed by Hutson as he collects the puck at the blue line, slings it to the front of the net, and Suzuki tucks it in.
- That’s seven points versus Florida this season. Might as well grab the full eight.
Overtime
- The captain had so much fun tucking the puck in the right side of Vanecek’s net, he wraps one into the left side on the opening shift of overtime.
Nick Suzuki calls game in OT #Habs sweep the season series with the Panthers.
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 10:45 PM
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- What a goal.
- What a player.
- What a win.
- What a team!
- That’s a series sweep of the champs, another huge two points, and a firmer grip on a playoff spot.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) It’s amazing what that line is doing
2) Time to put the best lineup on the ice with eight games to play
1) But what did he ever amount to?
