Bruins victory and loss to Canadiens ends playoff chase

The Florida Panthers, who piled up a franchisebest 103 points last season, saw their playoff hopes officially dashed on Thursday night when they lost to the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 and the Boston Bruins beat the Dallas Stars 2-0.

The Panthers have 77 points with five games remaining, while the Bruins have an insurmountable 88.

In Thursday night’s game in Montreal, the Canadiens opened the scoring by blitzing the Panthers with three goals in less than six minutes midway through the first period.

Florida finally answered in the second as Reilly Smith tallied his 15th of the season with 9:19 left.

The Habs pushed the lead to 4-1 in the third before the Panthers’ Michael Matheson notched his sixth goal. But, that was as close as Florida could get.

The Panthers will finish with their worst point total since 2013-14 when they had 66 points, leading to the hiring of Gerard Gallant.

Gallant’s Panthers had 91 points in 2014-15, leading into the record-setting playoff season last year. However, after a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., which dropped Florida to 11-10-1, Gallant was fired.

He was replaced by general manager Tom Rowe, and in late February things looked good, with the Panthers winning five games in a row on the road and coming home with a robust 28-20-10 record and 66 points.

However, the season imploded and the team has gone 5-12-1 (before the Canadiens game) since that 5-0 road trip.

Gallant finished his twoplus seasons with 217 points in 186 games, 1.17 points per game — the best mark in franchise history, while Rowe has 54 points in 54 games.

Panthers’ upcoming games: Saturday at Bruins, 7:30 p.m., FSF; Monday vs. Canadiens, 7:30 p.m., FSF; Thursday vs. Blues, 7:30 p.m., FSF