The Florida Panthers had to switch to their seldom-used back-up goaltender just 2:01 into their game against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
They made sure it didn’t matter.
The Panthers exploded for five goals in the second period — including four on the power play — to blow out the Canadiens, 6-2, to wrap up a three-game road trip in Montreal.
The four power-play goals in the second period marked only the second time in franchise history Florida scored at least four on the power play in a single period and made life easy for Alex Lyon, who was making his Panthers debut after fellow goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky exited with a lower-body injury in the opening minutes.
Lyon, 30, stopped 24 of 25 shots, including his first 16 to let Florida (22-20-5) build a 5-0 lead at the Bell Centre.
Bobrovsky’s injury seemingly occurred on the first scoring chance of the game. About a minute into the game, Josh Anderson was lining up a deflection, only to have his stick break and the puck hit the left post. Bobrovsky, though, slid to try to cut off the Canadiens right wing’s angle and jammed his left leg into the same post. The star goalie moved around with some discomfort after the collision and ultimately left the game with 17:59 left in the first period, right at the start of a penalty kill.
Lyon, thrown into a high-intensity situation, stood tall and made two saves on the kill, including one sprawling save to his right to keep the game scoreless.
At the start of the second period, the Panthers announced Bobrovsky was questionable to return, but he never did, which could line up Lyon for a bigger opportunity moving forward.
Lyon has spent most of the season with AHL Charlotte and got his second call up to the NHL on Jan. 10 when fellow goaltender Spencer Knight landed on injured reserve. After riding the bench as Bobrovsky’s backup for five games, Lyon played in his first NHL game in more than a year in Canada and helped Florida get another important win.
The Panthers won 2 of 3 on the trip, with an overtime loss in the other, and now trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by just two points for the eighth and final postseason spot in the Eastern Conference.
Florida did make it mostly easy for Lyon. Even with center Eric Staal also going down with an upper-body injury in the first period, the Panthers overwhelmed Montreal (19-24-3) in the final two periods with a barrage of power-play goals.
With 13:30 left in the second period, Florida finally broke the scoreless tie when Sam Reinhart put home a rebound off a shot by fellow center Aleksander Barkov on a power play. The Canadiens challenged for goaltender interference and the call stood, meaning the Panthers got another power play and they cashed in again 1:57 later when forward Sam Bennett deflected in a pass from defenseman Gustav Forsling.
On Florida’s next power play, All-Star right wing Matthew Tkachuk scored again and then left wing Givani Smith scored his first goal as a Panther at even strength 1:05 after Tkachuk to bust open a 4-0 lead in Quebec.
Florida scored four times in 9:27, then added one more from Tkachuk in the last minute of the period to take a 5-0 lead into the second intermission.
The Canadiens briefly threatened with two goals in the first 8:06 of the third period, but left wing Ryan Lomberg scored 1:05 later to push the Panthers’ lead back to 6-2.
