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Panthers road trip continues against Montreal squad fighting for playoff spot

Apr 2, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov (16) scores a goal against Montreal Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault (35) during the first period at the Bell Centre. (Eric Bolte-Imagn Images)

The Florida Panthers will be looking to make it a perfect visit to Canada when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Fresh off Thursday’s 3-2 victory in Toronto, the Panthers will continue their nearly two-week road trip against the Canadiens squad desperate to keep pace in an extremely tight playoff race.

Entering play Saturday, Montreal is a single point behind the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers, who are tied with 70 points for the final Wild Card spot in the East, though currently Columbus holds the tiebreaker with a game in hand on New York.

Montreal has been playing some solid hockey of late, and it’s been what has prolelled them back into the thick of the Wild Card hunt.

After enduring a stretch between January and February in which the Habs lost eight of nine, things have turned around significantly since the 4 Nations break for Montreal.

They’ve picked up points in eight of nine and are hoping to build on the 6-1-2 run that has, at least for now, saved their season.

The next week will go a long way toward Montreal maintaining their position as a playoff hopeful, as they’ll face Florida, the Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders and Colorado Avalanche.

Ottawa and Colorado are currently holding playoff spots while the Islanders are four points back of the final Wild Card spot and fighting for every point they can get.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s matchup in Montreal:

Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Mackie Samoskevich – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist

A.J. Greer – Nico Sturm – Tomas Nosek

Gus Forsling – Seth Jones

Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov

Nate Schmidt – Uvis Balinskis

Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Brad Marchand

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UConn-Creighton game at Big East tourney ends with heated skirmish

A scuffle broke out at the end of Creighton's victory over UConn in the Big East Tournament semifinals on Friday night after Jamiya Neal threw down a needless dunk for the Bluejays in the final seconds. Huskies guard Hassan Diarra shoved Neal in the chest and appeared to square up with his fists for a split second as the two were face-to-face. Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner separated them by pushing Neal away as whistles blew and players came streaming off the benches at Madison Square Garden.

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Big 12 teams picking up injuries during conference tourney with NCAA Tournament on the horizon

The Big 12 Tournament hasn't exactly been kind to its own teams when it comes to staying healthy. Second-ranked Houston cruised into the title game with a 76-56 victory over No. 17 BYU on Friday night, despite top rebounder J'Wan Roberts sitting on the bench with his sprained ankle in a boot. A few hours later, Arizona joined the Cougars in the title game with an 86-80 victory over No. 9 Texas Tech, which was missing Chance McMillian and Darrion Williams due to injuries.

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Neal’s 19 lead Creighton over UConn 71-62 in Big East Conference Tournament

Jasen Green and Jamiya Neal each scored 19 points in second-seeded Creighton's 71-62 win over No. 3-seed UConn on Friday in the semifinals of the Big East Conference Tournament. Creighton, the No. 2 seed, will face top-seeded St. John's in Saturday's championship game. Alex Karaban's layup for the third-seeded Huskies tied the game at 28-28 with under seven minutes left in the first half, but the Bluejays ran off 11-straight points, six by Green, to take a 46-35 lead into the break.

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Austin Reaves' 37-point effort not enough as Lakers fall to Denver in wild finish

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves collects a loose ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Lakers guard Austin Reaves drives to the basket during the first half of a 131-126 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. (David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Lakers coach JJ Redick lately has repeated a lyric from an old Jay-Z song: “It was all good just a week ago."

Entering Friday's game against the Denver Nuggets, things were not good for the Lakers. They entered on a three-game losing streak. They were down three starters in LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes. A fourth, Luka Doncic, was sitting out on the second night of a back-to-back. Two more key rotation players, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent, also were unavailable as they managed long-term injuries.

A week ago the Lakers were mostly healthy, flying to Boston on an eight-game winning streak. A week ago they were climbing the standings, not sliding.

Read more:Luka Doncic's 45 points can't save Lakers from third straight loss, but hope lies ahead

But even if the personnel didn’t mirror the Lakers of a week ago, at least the energy did Friday, the team pushing the Nuggets over four quarters before making one too many mistakes in a 131-126 loss.

“I’m proud of the group for the level of fight and resiliency,” Redick said.

Nuggets stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic ran a pick and roll, opening up Murray for a clean look at a three-pointer with 5.6 seconds left. Like he has so many times against the Lakers, the point guard hit the big shot.

Austin Reaves, who capped his rookie season with a 31-point triple-double in Denver, nearly led the Lakers (40-25) to the upset, scoring 37 along with 13 assists and eight rebounds. Dalton Knecht, starting near his hometown, had his most points since mid-November with 32, and Shake Milton scored 16 off the bench.

Knecht scored his final two points on a dunk and landed awkwardly on his back and head. He was able to stay in the game.

“I told him in the huddle, I said, 'Hey, if you want to shoot it, shoot it. I don't care if you shoot it 35 times, we're going to need every bucket you can get,'” Reaves told Knecht. “So he's a hooper.”

Read more:Lakers newsletter: What's going on with all the Lakers' injuries?

The Lakers led by three in the final minute before a Jokic three-point play and Murray’s triple. All five starters scored in double figures for Denver (43-24).

Reaves, who had to ice his right wrist after the Lakers’ loss in Milwaukee on Thursday, said he wasn't sure he'd play, but ultimately the chance to compete carried him.

“We know when we're full healthy and got everybody on the team that we have a really good chance to beat anybody," Reaves said. "I just see this group, coming together, locking in on one common goal and that's to win. And tonight I think is the biggest testament to that. Very shorthanded and went and played a really good basketball team with probably the best player in the world. And went toe to toe and had an opportunity to win it and just didn't execute the last 50 seconds.”

He played 39 minutes.

“Certainly asked a lot of him on the second night of a back-to-back, not just the 40 minutes, but just the vast majority of playmaking duties,” Redick said. “And I thought he did an outstanding job.”

The Lakers had a chance to force overtime but they couldn’t get the inbounds pass to Reaves, with Russell Westbrook getting the steal and dunking in the final seconds.

Before the game Redick again sounded optimistic about the Lakers getting more help over the next week, when the team plays five games in Los Angeles, including a pair of back-to-backs Sunday and Monday and Wednesday and Thursday to wrap a stretch in which they’ll play six times in eight days.

The Lakers are the first team since 2022 to have six games in eight days, playing a makeup of a game with the San Antonio Spurs that was postponed during the wildfires in January.

They head back to L.A. on a season-worst four-game losing streak, with full health still some time away.

“We went 0-4, so it's a pretty bad trip. But ... JJ said, ‘A week ago, everybody's like Lakers in five.' So we just don't listen to any of it,” Reaves said.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.