SUNRISE, Fla. –Riding on the shoulders on Tomas Fleischmann, the Florida Panthers battled back, beating the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 at the BankAtlantic Center on New Years Eve. It was the first time the Panthers had won the annual holiday home meeting since December 29, 2006 when they won 3-1 in Sunrise. Nathan Horton scored the game winning goal in that one.

The Canadiens drew first blood in the opening frame, as Travis Moen took a pass from Lars Eller. His slap shot from the left side at 5:37 made the score 1-0. It was his ninth of the season, with Tomas Kaberle getting the second assist.

The Panthers got the equalizer in the second, after Max Pacioretty took a penalty for holding, the Panthers found themselves on a powerplay. Stephen Weiss ran the rush up center, dropping the puck to his right for Tomas Fleischmann, who took a hard shot past Carey Price. It was hist 14th goal of the season, and with the assist, Weiss tied Olli Jokinen for the franchise record of 131 assists.

Just 4:16 into the second period, Kevin Dineen was forced to make his second mid-period goaltending change in as many nights. This time, José Théodore was hit by his own man, Dmitry Kulikov, who was attempting to keep a Canadiens’ player from hitting the Panthers’ net-minder. Théodore’s mask hit the post as he went down in pain. He is is listed to have a “lower body injury.” Coach Dineen said he expects the goalie to be out until at least next Monday.

In the third, Shawn Matthias got the puck at center from Ed Jovanovski and drove it up the ice. He went to the left and ripped a hard slap shot. Matthias’ seventh goal of the season made the game 2-1 Panthers 3:08 into the final frame.

Fleischmann seemingly iced the game with 40 seconds left in the game as he intercepted the puck in the neutral zone and raced down the left side. He shot the puck into the open net to make it 3-1, but Erik Cole quickly put a tally on the board for Montreal to keep them alive with 29 seconds left, cutting the lead in half to 3-2.

Florida’s victory came at a huge cost for both the Panthers and the NHL. As the first period ended, the two teams engaged in a scrum to the right of Théodore. At the end of the day, P.K. Subban and Erik Gudbranson each were tabbed with two minutes for slashing and an extra two for roughing. As the teams skated to the benches, linesman Darren Gibbs allegedly overheard Krys Barch yell a racial slur at Subban, who is Black.

““Personally I didn’t hear anything. I don’t even know what happened, really,” Subban said. “A couple of guys on the ice told me that something was said. I don’t know what was said, I didn’t hear it. As far as I’m concerned it’s really out of my hands, so I don’t really know too much about it.”

Canadiens coach Randy Cunneyworth echoed Subban’s comments, saying he was unaware of what was actually said, as well.

“I know it was some sort of a game misconduct,” he said. “We’re not aware of the exact words in any way and we don’t think we’ll ever find out. The bottom line is there is no room for that.

“Those things have to be [addressed immediately] and the referees are on the ball about those kinds of incidents.”