The Florida Panthers bounced back from a difficult loss with a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
After seeing a 2-0 lead disappear in the third period of a game in New York, the Panthers scored the first goals of this game. Monday's near-win would have put Florida into first-place in the Atlantic Division, and instead left it tied for third. With this win, the Panthers have taken the top spot pending the result of Boston's game late Monday.
Florida now has 87 points this season and has won three of its last four games. The resilience shown after a heartbreaking loss is an encouraging sign for a hungry team. Florida has done an admirable job all year long of bouncing back against adversity, which serve it well down a tough final stretch.
Vincent Trocheck got the scoring started for the Panthers with his 21st goal of the year. The score came at the 11:46 mark of the first period and had assists on it from Brian Campbell and Reilly Smith.
Florida's lead would double early into the second period when Nick Bjugstad made it a 2-0 lead. Bjugstad's 12th goal of the season came during a power play with assists from Aaron Ekblad and Teddy Purcell.
The Panthers kept the scoring coming with Jiri Hudler's 13th goal of the year. The score which came later in the second period gave Florida a 3-0 lead at the time. Trocheck picked up an assist on the score.
Florida would add another goal in the third period to pad the lead and make it a 4-1 game. Aleksander Barkov's 23rd goal of the season had assists on it from Jonathan Huberdeau and Jaromir Jagr.
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With this being the second game of a back-to-back, Al Montoya was given the start in the net for Florida. Montoya did a solid job by stopping 27 of the 28 attempts fired at him.
The Panthers will stay in Canada and take the day off on Wednesday, before continuing their schedule on Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
