Panthers Honor Marchand, Blow Multi-Goal Lead to Canadiens

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Montreal Canadiens overcame a two-goal deficit with under five minutes remaining in regulation to force overtime and defeat the Florida Panthers 3-2 at Amerant Bank Arena.

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki scored the final two goals of the evening to help this team to improve to 21-12-6 on the season.

The Panthers only left with a loser point as they fell to 21-15-3 in their final game before the 2026 Winter Classic in Miami on Jan 2.

“I’m going to grumble for a little while and find a way to be in a good mood in two days (with the Winter Classic coming up),” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said postgame. “I don’t think we need to let that one sit for a day.”

Tuesday night’s pre New Year’s Eve matchup between the Panthers and Canadiens started with a moment of recognition for a historic achievement.

Brad Marchand, Florida’s feisty and recently new fan favorite forward, was honored prior to the game for reaching 1,000 career NHL points — a milestone he hit earlier last month.

Panthers general manager Bill Zito presented Marchand with a golden stick — recognizing his 1,000 points.

Anton Lundell gave replica “mini golden sticks” to Marchand’s children, and Eetu Luostarinen presented flowers to members of the Marchand family. Both players were Marchand’s linemates during last year’s Stanley Cup Final campaign.

“[They are] the guys that I started with and obviously built a great connection with,” Marchand said of Lundell and Luostarinen.“It was great to have them out there. I appreciate their support for the night.”

He received a plaque from Gregory Campbell, Panthers assistant general manager, and more importantly former teammate from their 2011 Stanley Cup win with the Boston Bruins. Campbell also re-gifted a velvet jacket that Marchand gave him when they were with Boston, only now it was embroidered for the special occasion, courtesy of Campbell.

Over his career if Marchand wasn’t enemy No. 1 in Montreal, he was close to it. Despite that, the Canadiens still took the ice to watch Marchand’s pregame ceremony, which they didn’t have to. The NHL lets teams stay in the room during ceremonies like this.

A couple thousand Habs fans in the Amerant Bank Arena crowd also showed class for the man that made them “boo” thousands of times over the past 17 seasons.

It was only right that after 50 minutes of scoreless hockey on Tuesday night, Marchand broke the deadlock.

With the Panthers on the power-play midway through the third period, Marchand took a lap around the Canadiens zone before firing the puck top-shelf for his team-leading 23rd goal of the season with 9:42 to play for a 1-0 lead. With that, Marchand extended his point-streak to nine games (7-7-14).

Sam Reinhart, who is narrowly behind Marchand for the Panthers scoring lead, made it 2-0 less than five minutes later. Reinhart beat Samuel Montembeault up and over the shoulder from a very tight angle for his 22nd goal of the season with 4:59 to play. He extended his point-streak to six games with the goal (5-6-11).

Montreal didn’t let a two-goal deficit with under five minutes to play against the back-to-back Cup champions deter them.

Cole Caufield scored his 19th of the season to make it a one-goal game just 32 seconds after Reinhart doubled Florida’s lead.

“I think the resolution of the new year is to get the lead first,” Caufield laughed when asked if the team should be called “the comeback kids.” “It’s good going forward throughout a season to kind of look back on those moments and remember that you’re always in it.”

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki tied the game with 1:22 to play, beating Daniil Tarasov for his 12th goal of the season to force overtime.

In overtime, Marchand went to the box for a roughing call on Mike Matheson, setting the Canadiens up with a 4-on-3 man advantage.

Suzuki completed the comeback for Montreal, scoring the overtime winner with three seconds to go on the power-play with his second goal of the night and 13th of the season.

“I thought it was one of our most complete games,” Suzuki said. “Just kept going, even when we went down.”

The Panthers will be back in action on Jan 2 as they play host to the New York Rangers for the 2026 Winter Classic at loanDepot Park in Miami. Puck drop is slated for 8 p.m. ET.