MONTREAL — Cole Caufield scored his first NHL hat trick and the Montreal Canadiens crushed the Presidents’ Trophy champions Florida Panthers in a 10-2 win Friday night.
As Tyler Pitlick netted Montreal’s tenth goal of the night, “Guy! Guy! Guy!” chants rained from the Bell Centre rafters honouring the passing of former Habs legend Guy Lafleur.
On his 700th career start, Carey Price made 37 saves to record his first win this season.
Jonas Johansson had a tough night at the office allowing 10 goals from 37 shots.
The Canadiens (22-49-11) took an early lead by scoring three goals on their first three shots.
Jordan Harris notched his first career goal from the point with the first shot of the night.
Mike Hoffman tapped in a loose puck in the crease to get the Habs up by two goals. Then Caufield winded a wrist shot to get Montreal up by three.
Gallagher added a power-play marker to give Montreal a 4-0 lead.
The Panthers (58-18-6) cut their deficit to three when Ben Chiarot scored his first goal back at the Bell Centre on the power play at 18:23 of the first period.
Montreal responded with four goals in the second period.
Caufield matched his jersey number with his 22nd goal at 1:33. Perrault followed up with his fourth of the campaign.
Pitlick connected with Jake Evans alone in front of the net at 6:08. Dvorak then tapped in Montreal’s eighth goal.
Caufield completed his first NHL hat trick at 8:12 of the third period and kept one of the hats as a souvenir.
Pitlick netted Montreal’s tenth goal of the season about two minutes later.
Noel Acciari added a late Florida marker, but the league’s best team left the ice with an embarrassing 10-2 loss.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2022.
Tristan D’Amours, The Canadian Press