FLA@MTL: Postgame
Carey Price took sole possession of third place on the Canadiens' all-time shutout list, moving ahead of Hall of Famer Ken Dryden
by Matt Cudzinowski @CanadiensMTL / canadiens.com
MONTREAL - The Canadiens posted their second straight win, besting the Panthers 4-0 at the Bell Centre.
The Canadiens were playing the first of back-to-back afternoon games in conjunction with Tim Hortons Family Weekend.
Jeff Petry's young sons, Boyd and Barrett, stopped by to join their father for his pregame warmup.
Kids were front and center at the rink. Public address announcer Michel Lacroix even had a helper to introduce Claude Julien's starters to the crowd.
That was followed up by a stellar rendition of the national anthems.
It was Nick Suzuki who opened the scoring for Montreal just 5:25 into the first period.
The 20-year-old centerman capped a perfect three-way passing play with his 10th goal of the season, beating Panthers starter Sergei Bobrovsky.
Suzuki became the eighth member of the squad to reach the double-digit mark in goals thus far this season.
With an assist on Suzuki's marker, Petry reached the 30-point plateau for the third consecutive year.
The Canadiens outshot the Panthers 16-8 after 20 minutes.
Artturi Lehkonen put the Canadiens ahead 2-0 when he tipped a Petry shot home at the 6:01 mark of the second period.
It was his 12th goal of the season.
The Canadiens kept on hammering away at their Atlantic Division rivals, and it paid dividends again when Tomas Tatar extended the lead to three goals.
The Slovak sniper batted a Phillip Danault feed into the Panthers net for his 19th goal of the season.
Petry collected his third assist of the game on Tatar's tally.
That's the way things stood after 40 minutes.
The Habs held the Panthers to just four shots in the period.
Petry picked up his fourth point of the game when Brendan Gallagher tipped his blast past Bobrovsky to give the Canadiens a 4-0 lead.
Gallagher's 17th goal of the season came on the power play at the 10:46 mark of the period.
That's the way things finished up.
It was Price's third shutout of the season and the 47th of his career, moving him ahead of Hall of Famer Ken Dryden into sole possession of third place on the franchise's all-time shutout list.
The Canadiens will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when they play host to the Columbus Blue Jackets.