Canadiens defeat Panthers, gain in Eastern race

MONTREAL --The Montreal Canadiens gained ground in the Eastern Conference wild-card race with a 6-1 win against the Florida Panthers at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Montreal (41-28-8) holds the second Eastern wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, one point behind the Carolina Hurricanes, who hold the first wild card and lost 4-1 at the Washington Capitals.
The Canadiens are two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who won 4-0 against the New York Islanders. Carolina and Columbus each have a game in hand on Montreal.
WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Canadiens highlights]
"You're checking the scores, obviously, I mean just to see how the results are," said Canadiens forward Tomas Tatar, who had two goals and an assist. "At the end of the day, it's all in your hands and you depend on your own destiny. So we just have to win the games that we have to."
Carey Price made 33 saves for Montreal, which is 4-0-1 in its past five games.
"We've got a point in the last five (games), it's huge right now," said forward Andrew Shaw, who had two assists. "It just shows that we're a character team. We're going to work hard, compete, and we're going to earn our own spot in the playoffs and not rely on someone winning or losing."

The Panthers (33-32-12), who were eliminated from playoff contention when the Blue Jackets defeated the Islanders, have lost four of five and been outscored 20-9 during a three-game losing streak.
"It's just not paying attention to our system, it's getting away from our system," Florida forward Vincent Trocheck said. "Somebody is trying to do someone else's job, you're duplicating on guys, and whenever you duplicate, obviously someone's going to be open. In the NHL, they're going to find that open guy, and they did, especially in the first, and that's what leads to goals-against.
"And it seems like we get down two goals, just like the last couple games, and we let off the gas, kind of just quit. It's embarrassing, it's extremely embarrassing. I mean, every single guy in here should be embarrassed the last three games."
James Reimer allowed three goals on nine shots before he was pulled in the first period of his first game since Feb. 26. Sam Montembeault made 15 saves in relief.
Tatar gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 6:58, and Brett Kulak made it 2-0 at 12:39 with a one-timer from the slot.
Montembeault replaced Reimer at 14:28 after Tatar scored his second goal of the game to make it 3-0.
Artturi Lehkonen made it 4-0 with his 10th goal at 2:52 of the second. Tatar got his NHL career-high 57th point with an assist on Phillip Danault's goal at 12:40 to make it 5-0.

Frank Vatrano scored on a Florida power play to make it 5-1 at 1:35 of the third.
Max Domi scored unassisted at 11:48 for the 6-1 final.
"Carey, he stands tall for us again," Tatar said. "In certain moments, he made those big saves, gave us the confidence. I think we played good. We were in the offensive zone, we were getting a lot of chances."

They said it

"Well it's not a lot of fun right now, I don't think the players are having a lot of fun. Again, it's another start by us where we're, you know, I liked our start. Our first seven, eight minutes, we came out with energy and we were physical, there's some altercations, guys were into it. We had a lot of chances in the first period. It just seemed you make mistake, it's in the back of your net. We've got to pull our goalie, it's three goals on nine shots, and here we go again, kind of thing." -- Panthers coach Bob Boughner
"We've got a little momentum rolling here, and it gives you a little boost of energy when you can come out and score early and everyone's feeling good like that. Every game is so huge right now." -- Canadiens defenseman Brett Kulak

Need to know

Canadiens forward Paul Byron left the game with an upper-body injury after a fight with MacKenzie Weegar at 2:24 of the first period. "We'll see how he feels tomorrow, and that's when we'll make the decision whether he's going on the trip with us," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. … Tatar had 56 points (29 goals, 27 assists) in 82 games with the Detroit Red Wings in 2014-15. … Domi (27 goals) and Tatar (25) are the fourth set of Canadiens teammates to score at least 25 goals apiece in their first season in Montreal. They joined Ryan Walter (29 goals) and Mats Naslund (26) in 1982-83, Brian Bellows (40) and Vincent Damphousse (39) in 1992-93, and Brian Gionta (28) and Michael Cammalleri (26) in 2009-10.

What's next

Panthers:At the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-O, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)