The spirit was high at the Bell Center on Friday night, as the Montreal Canadiens ended their painful campaign by humiliating the Florida Panthers, holders of the Presidents’ Trophy, by a score of 10 to 2.
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Cole Caufield scored his first hat trick in the win. The American rookie scored one goal per period to sign this feat and allow CH to reach ten goals for the first time since December 2, 2017.
“Guy, Guy, Guy!” : Habs fans have also honored the memory of Guy Lafleur and his number 10 when Tyler Pitlick scored his 10th goal in the middle of the third period.
On his 700th start in the National Hockey League (NHL), Carey Price was finally able to count on a solid offensive contribution from his teammates. Curiously, he faced more throws than his rival, making 37 parries.
Without Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar, to name a few, the Florida team presented a completely different face at the Bell Center… that of an American Hockey League team.
However, it was between the posts that the “Cats” lost the game. In an effort to give Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight a rest, head coach Andrew Brunette asked Jonas Johansson to defend his net on Friday. And the CH took full advantage of it.
The evening started in the best way for rookie Jordan Harris. The young American back fired a shot from the point that deflected off Matt Kiersted before ending its trajectory in the Panthers’ cage. This is his first in the NHL.
Mike Hoffman and Brendan Gallagher also flashed the red light in the first period.
In the second period, it was the turn of Mathieu Perreault, Jake Evans and Christian Dvorak to fill their statistics by finding the back of the net.
Former CH Ben Chiarot, on the power play, and striker Noel Acciari saved the honor of the Panthers. They were playing their second game in 24 hours.
The Canadian thus concludes his season with a record of 22-49-11.