The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Florida Panthers 4–2 on Sunday, but a late incident involving Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola escalated tensions between the two teams ahead of Tuesday’s rematch.
As the final horn was about to sound, Mikkola wound up and sent a slap shot toward the Montreal net while the Canadiens players had already begun skating toward goaltender Sam Montembeault to celebrate the win.
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The shot triggered an immediate reaction, and multiple players converged in a brief on-ice melee that lasted several seconds before officials separated both teams.
On a positive note, even with the game over by the time of the scuffle, nobody left the benches to join the melee.
The play could have been seen by the Habs as a violation of an unwritten rule in hockey.
Montreal was leading by two goals, and the game’s outcome wouldn’t have been altered by Mikkola’s shot getting into the Canadiens’ net. The puck could have hit someone and caused an injury, especially given that no one would have expected a shot from there with the game essentially over.
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Sunday’s win helped the Canadiens close the gap in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Montreal had lost multiple games on the road but enters this week second in the wild-card race with a 34-30-9 record and 77 points through 73 games.
Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) reacts from the bench moments after the game against the Montreal Canadiens ended on Sunday afternoon. Mikkola fired a slap shot from the Panthers’ end of the ice as time expired, and the Canadiens took offense to it.Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
The Panthers and the Habs traded goals early, with Patrik Laine and Juraj Slafkovsky scoring for Montreal and Sam Reinhart and Seth Jones answering for Florida, all four goals arriving in alternating fashion.
The third period, however, belonged to the Canadiens, with Nick Suzuki breaking the tie at 2:02 and Brendan Gallagher adding an empty-net goal to seal the final 4-2 result at the 18:16 mark.
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The Canadiens and Panthers will meet again on Tuesday night at Bell Centre in Montreal, where further response to Mikkola’s actions may follow.
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