WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

12/30 21:02 CST Canadiens rally late in regulation, spoil Marchand's night with 3-2 overtime win over Panthers Canadiens rally late in regulation, spoil Marchand's night with 3-2 overtime win over Panthers By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) --- Nick Suzuki got a power-play goal 3:24 into overtime, and the Montreal Canadiens rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final five minutes of regulation to stun the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Tuesday night. Suzuki also scored late in regulation to tie the game for the Canadiens, who improved to 6-1-3 in their last 10 games. Cole Caufield also scored for Montreal. Brad Marchand and Sam Reinhart scored for Florida, but Marchand was called for roughing 1:27 into overtime --- giving Montreal a 4-on-3 advantage. The Panthers paid tribute to Marchand's 1,000th career point in a pregame ceremony. Marchand got the milestone point in mid-November, but chose this game --- against Montreal, one of his longtime rivals when he was with Boston and a team coached by one of his idols, Martin St. Louis --- for the formal celebration. The game was scoreless after two periods, just the 11th such game in the NHL this season and the first for both the Panthers and the Canadiens. And it was the first time a Florida-Montreal matchup saw no goals in the first 40 minutes of action since Feb. 14, 2013 --- a contest that ended up as a 1-0 road win for the Canadiens. But the final 10 minutes were wild. Marchand opened the scoring at 10:18 and Reinhart connected with 4:59 left to put Florida up 2-0. Back came Montreal, with Caufield scoring 32 seconds after Reinhart's goal and then Suzuki tying it up with 1:22 remaining. It was the final game of 2025 for both teams. Montreal's 21 wins going into New Year's Day are its most since having 21 wins at this point during the 2018-19 season. And Florida --- which has played in each of the last three Stanley Cup Finals, winning the last two titles --- played its 106th game of the year, the third straight year in which the Panthers have topped 100 games.

Up next Canadiens: Visit Carolina on Thursday. Panthers: Host the New York Rangers in the Winter Classic at Miami on Friday. ___ AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL