SUNRISE, Fla. – Montreal newcomer James Wisniewski scored his second goal of the game 3:41 into overtime to give the Canadiens a 3-2 comeback victory over the Florida Panthers on Friday.
Wisniewski, acquired from the New York Islanders on Tuesday, scored the winner off a rebound of Michael Cammalleri's shot. The defenseman had a power-play goal in the second period.
Brian Gionta also scored and Alex Auld stopped 20 shots to help the Canadiens, coming off a 4-1 loss at Tampa Bay on Thursday night, overcome a 2-0 deficit to finish 2-5 on their seven-game trip.
Stephen Weiss and Dmitry Kulikov scored for Florida in a 1:45 span early in the second period. Tomas Vokoun made 45 saves for the Panthers.
Weiss opened the scoring 28 seconds into the second with his 11th goal. He put in a rebound from Dennis Wideman's shot that Auld was unable to control.
Kulikov scored his third goal at 2:13 when he wristed a shot from the point. Evgeny Dadonov nearly redirected the puck, which got past Auld thanks to traffic in front of the net.
Wisniewski and Gionta tied it with power-play goals midway through the second period.
Wisniewski scored at 10:59, his first goal with first with Montreal At 12:54, Gionta redirected Chris Gomez's feed past Vokoun. It was Gionta's 13th goal.
NOTES: The Canadiens traded C Maim Lapierre to Anaheim on Friday for D Brett Festerling and a fifth-round pick in 2012. ... Florida placed C Steve Reinprecht on waivers. ... With a large contingent of Canadiens fans in attendance, the crowd noise made it seem like a Montreal home game.
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