Anthony Stolarz Starts for Florida Panthers Against Canadiens

SUNRISE — Anthony Stolarz will start in net for the Florida Panthers on Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens.

Stolarz is 4-3-1 with a .915 save percentage and a 2.18 goals-against average in eight starts.

He allowed two or fewer goals in four of his past five starts.

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“You look at the way Bobby has been playing and he has been awesome,” Stolarz said after making 17 saves in a 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets.

“And as the backup, you have to know your role and you have to be ready. I enjoy that challenge, enjoy when my name gets called. When that happens, I want to perform well. The attitude does not change. When you have a competitor like Bobby on the other end of the ice, you want to match his shot-for-shot. I think that makes it a great relationship. We just feed off each other.”

Jake Allen will start in net for the Montreal Canadiens.

He is 4-6-2 with a .904 save percentage and a 3.43 goals-against average.

ON DECK

MONTREAL CANADIENS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise 
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5 FM-2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Local Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-250); Puck line (-1.5, -105); Over/Under 6.5 (-105/-120)
• Last Season: Florida won 4-0
• This Season — At Montreal: Panthers 5, Canadiens 1 (Nov. 30). At Florida: Saturday; Feb. 29.
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 56-38-11, 6 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Jan. 2, 2024, at Arizona, 9 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (21-12-2) LINES

17 Evan Rodrigues // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell  // 21 Nick Cousins

94 Ryan Lomberg //82 Kevin Stenlund // 67 Will Lockwood

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour

91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

41 Anthony Stolarz

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

Scratched: Josh Mahura, Steven Lorentz, Jonah Gadjovich

PROJECTED MONTREAL CANADIENS (15-14-5) LINES

22 Cole Caufield // 14 Nick Suzuki // 20 Juraj Slafkovsky

91 Sean Monahan // 71 Jake Evans // 17 Josh Anderson

40 Joel Armia // 28 Christian Dvorak // 11 Brendan Gallagher

55 Michael Pezzetta // 13 Mitchell Stephens // 56 Jesse Ylonen

8 Mike Matheson // 58 David Savard

21 Kaiden Guhle // 52 Justin Barron

47 Jayden Struble // 54 Jordan Harris

34 Jake Allen

35 Sam Montembeault

Scratched: Jonathan Kovacevic, Gustav Lindstrom, Cayden Primeau

Injured: Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower body), Alex Newhook (lower body), Tanner Pearson (upper body)