A short-lived tie was broken early in the second period as the Florida Panthers got out to a 3-1 lead against the Montreal Canadiens Sunday night.

Brandon Prust scored his fourth goal of the season to tie the game at one early in the second frame.

But two minutes later, Florida’s Aleksander Barkov tipped the puck past Montreal’s Peter Budaj to regain the lead for the Panthers.

Barkov scored again at 14:29 to give Florida a two-goal lead.

A Habs powerplay early in the first period was negated 30 seconds in by Rene Bourque, who took an interference penalty for getting in the way of Florida’s goalie Scott Clemmensen.

On the ensuing 4-on-4, Tomas Fleischmann got behind a Habs defenceman at the Habs’ blue line and passed the puck to Dmitry Kulikov in front of net, who buried it behind Peter Budaj to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

Captain Brian Gionta thought he had the equalizer when he scored a few minutes later, but the goal was disallowed by officials who said the puck was knocked down by a high stick earlier in the play.

In an interview with TSN’s Chris Cuthbert, Gionta said he believed the score should have been tied going into the first intermission.

“It’s a tough call, I think he’s from behind,” he said.

Gionta also said the team had to generate more offensive chances if they want to solve the Panthers.

“They’ve got a lot of speed in through the neutral zone, so we have to do a better job of establishing our forecheck and puck placement,” he said.

Florida led the Habs 19-12 in shots at the end of the second period.

As usual, a large contingent of Habs fans were on hand to fill seats at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla.

The Habs are coming off a shootout win Saturday in Tampa.

The Canadiens (23-13-3) and Panthers (14-20-5) have met once before this season, in Montreal where a tired Habs squad couldn’t muster enough offence to down the Panthers, resulting in a 2-1 loss.

The Habs will be in North Carolina New Year’s Eve to face the Carolina Hurricanes, and will head to Dallas Jan. 2 to play the Stars before coming back to the Bell Centre for their first home game in six games next Saturday.