MONTREAL — Jaroslav Halak made 37
saves for his second shutout, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the
Florida Panthers 2-0 on Thursday night for their first home win in a
month.
Halak recorded his sixth NHL shutout
and improved to 6-1 in his last seven starts, including a 5-4 win at
Florida in his previous outing one week earlier. He is 4-0 overall
against the Panthers.
Benoit Pouliot, who scored the
winning goal in Florida, netted his fourth in six games late in the
first. Brian Gionta scored into an empty net with 35.9 seconds left,
moments after Halak stopped Jordan Leopold's shot from the slot.
The Canadiens, who scored three times
in their last three home games, ended a four-game losing streak at the
Bell Centre, avoiding their longest skid in Montreal since the 2000-01
season.
Tomas Vokoun stopped 37 shots for
Florida, which has lost five of six, including a 3-2 loss in Toronto on
Tuesday despite taking an early 2-0 lead.
The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead with
12.1 seconds remaining in the first. Pouliot fired a wrist shot from
the left circle past Vokoun's glove into the top left corner. Pouliot
had taken a pass from Scott Gomez, who had carried the puck down the
left side.
The Canadiens had a potential goal
waved off midway through the first by the referee, who announced
that the linesman had signaled a delayed offside. The whistle
blew to stop play after the puck took an odd bounce toward the net on a
dump-in.
Mike Cammalleri put a rebound off the
end boards just wide of the right post earlier in the opening period
while the Canadiens held a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:40.
Vokoun kept the Panthers within one
in the second when he stuck out his left pad to get a piece of Glen
Metropolit's shot, which caromed off the right post. Vokoun gloved
Cammalleri's wrist shot from the right circle earlier in the second.
Notes
Center Stephen Weiss, who leads
the Panthers with 18 goals, failed to score for a sixth straight game.
… Vokoun was drafted 226th overall by Montreal in 1994. He appeared
in one game with the Canadiens on Feb. 6, 1997, allowing four goals in
his NHL debut before he was pulled after the first period of a 9-5 loss
in Philadelphia. … Montreal, which hadn't won at home since a 3-1
victory over Philadelphia on Dec. 7, avoided its longest home losing
streak since losing seven in a row from Oct. 28-Nov. 25, 2000. …
Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne missed his third straight game because of
family matters.