Panthers lose heartbreaker after late Montreal goal forces shootout. Verhaeghe, Reinhardt, and Luostarinen scored in a hard-fought, one-goal defeat.
The Florida Panthers continued their final road trip of the season on Tuesday night when they visited the Montreal Canadiens.
Florida played some solid hockey against the playoff-bound Habs, but couldn’t hold a late lead, ultimately losing 4-3 to Montreal in a shootout.
A strong start by the Panthers was rewarded with the game’s opening goal.
Already outshooting Montreal 6-1, Florida took the lead after Donovan Sebrango carried the puck through the neutral zone and into Montreal’s end before firing a long wrist shot that was stopped by Jakub Dobes.
The rebound went off his right pad and straight to Carter Verhaeghe, who one-timed the puck into the net to put Florida up 1-0 at the 9:23 mark of the opening period.
It was a lead that held until just past the intermission.
With Tobias Bjornfot in the penalty box for slashing, Montreal rookie Ivan Demidov one-timed a pass from Cole Caufield past the blocker of Daniil Tarasov and into the net, knotting the score at one just 54 seconds into the middle frame.
Cole Reinhardt’s fifth tally of the season gave the Cats their lead back late in the period.
Catching up to the puck in Montreal’s zone with nobody between him and the goaltender, Reinhardt held the puck until Dobes committed, then extended his arms and wrapped the puck around the sprawled out goalie and into the net with 6:17 on the clock.
The score remained 2-1 until another Montreal scored on a delayed penalty early in the third period.
With six attackers on the ice, Phillip Danault picked up a loose puck in the slot and wired a wrist shot past Tarasov, knotting the game at two with 13:38 remaining.
This time, the Panthers answered in quick fashion.
Just 87 seconds later, Eetu Luostarinen got his stick on a long shot by Gus Forsling and deflected the puck over Dobes, putting Florida right back in front 3-2.
The Panthers held their lead until the final seconds, when Nick Suzuki caught Tarasov out of position and tied the game with just 20.1 to go.
Overtime solved nothing, so the game went to a shootout.
Goals by Cole Caufield and Alex Texier would be more than enough as Montreal picked up the bonus point.
On to Ottawa.
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Photo caption: Apr 7, 2026; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Florida Panthers goalie Daniil Tarasov (40) stops Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson (8) and teammate forward Juraj Slafkovsky (20) during the second period at the Bell Centre. (Eric Bolte-Imagn Images)