MONTREAL — Martin St. Louis watched the crowd erupt around the Bell Centre.
The Montreal Canadiens head coach hoped it would be one of several special moments for his group this spring.
Montreal fans did the wave for nearly 10 minutes in the third period — including an entire TV timeout — and chanted “Olé, Olé, Olé” to the top of their lungs as the playoff-chasing Canadiens beat the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Saturday night.
“The fans spoiled us in the third, and we want to give them more,” St. Louis said. “It was a great experience for everyone that was in the building tonight. I had a lot of fun in the third with how we carried ourselves and the atmosphere.
“Now we’re going to try to earn more moments like that.”
The celebrations started after Christian Dvorak deflected a point shot from David Savard to give Montreal (32-27-7) a two-goal lead at 8:11 of the third.
While fans ramped up the noise during the TV break, Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault tried his best to stay focused — despite having the urge to join the party.
“I was talking about it with (backup Jakub Dobes) at the bench,” Montembeault said. “It was totally crazy.”
“I wasn’t getting many shots during that stretch, I had to stay concentrated,” he added. “I wanted to do the wave myself.”
The Canadiens — who finished near the NHL’s basement the past three seasons — remained within striking distance of the playoffs with 71 points, one behind the New York Rangers. New York defeated Columbus (70 points) to take hold of the Eastern Conference’s second wild card.
Cole Caufield buried his team-leading 33rd goal and added an assist while Patrik Laine also scored.
Montembeault made 21 saves, and came up big with a windmill glove stop on Carter Verhaeghe late during a 6-on-4 advantage.
The Canadiens otherwise held the defending Stanley Cup champions to the outside, blocking shots and limiting quality chances while grinding it out for what could be a crucial two points at the end of the season.
“From start to finish it’s one of the best games we’ve played since I’ve been here,” said St. Louis, who was hired in February 2022.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice even threw the credit in Montreal’s direction, while avoiding critiques of his own team’s play.
“They beat us and they’re in a fight for their lives, and they played their butts off, and that should be the story here,” Maurice said. “And I don’t want to give you an honest assessment of our game because I don’t want to be disrespectful of a big win for them.”
Nick Suzuki has said he watched the raucous 4 Nations Face-Off round-robin tilt between Canada and the United States in Montreal this February — a game that famously included three fights in the opening nine seconds.
Montreal’s captain couldn’t help but wonder what the atmosphere would look like for a full-house Canadiens playoff game. Saturday night’s win felt like an appetizer.
“I think everyone loved it,” he said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been in this position. (The fans) were really excited right away from warm-ups.
“They love their hockey here, they want a winning team, and we want to give that to them.”
With the Canadiens in a playoff push, general manager Kent Hughes held on to his pending unrestricted free agents at last week’s NHL trade deadline, bucking a trend of the past three years.
Juraj Slafkovsky hopes the Canadiens can keep backing up that decision.
“We didn’t want any changes,” Slafkovsky said. “We’re a really tight group here. We love each other, everyone. Would be crazy not seeing some of these guys here.
“We have a chance to prove Kent and all the guys upstairs that they made the right choice.”
PP SPECIALIST
Laine opened the scoring with a power-play goal 5:15 into the game. After missing a couple attempts, the Finnish sharpshooter ripped a wrist shot over Sergei Bobrovsky’s left shoulder into the top corner for his 13th with the man-advantage in 36 games.
“Just tried to hit the net,” he said. “I fumbled it a couple of times before that, I had some chances early in that power play, probably could have given Suzy a backdoor tap in, but missed it.”
NEW CHALLENGE
For the first time since taking the job, St. Louis is worrying about results more than player development late in a season.
The Canadiens are still in the hunt for playoff spot after three seasons of falling out of contention months before the regular season ended.
“It’s a different challenge but they’re both fun, they’re both part of the process that we’re going through,” he said Saturday morning. “It’s a great progression for our team and for me as a coach to now be at this time of the season and preparing a team to win.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 15, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
