Panthers double Hurricanes 6-3 in Sunrise

by Donny Rivette on Dec 18, 2009 10:27 PM EST Comment 4 comments

Good stuff team-wide as the Cats, clinging to a 6-3 lead (and followers of this club know the drill) closed the door in a home game to climb above .500, taking the Hurricanes by a final of 6-3.

Radek Dvorak (+5!) and Rostislav Olesz finished with three points each, followed by Dominic Moore's two-pointer. Tomas Vokoun - rattled in the third frame but keeping focus to the end - ended the night with 32 saves on 35 shots. Ten Panthers skaters gained at least one point. Behold the sweet stuff...

Solid work team-wide as the Cats, clinging to a 6-3 lead (and followers of this club know the drill) closed the door in a home game to climb above .500, taking the Hurricanes by a final of 6-3.

Carolina went the Paul Maurice route - in the third - but found far too much mountain to climb. Any Cats fan who wasn't a little nervous when the Canes scored their second goal wled (by far) as either without cellphone service or lying to you. Scott Walker and Eric Staal tamed a ridiculous lead, scaring the tar out of Panthers fans late, but never quite mustering the killer offense needed to overcome the deficit.

Staal and defenseman Joni Pitkanen each had six shots on goal. Staal, Sergei Samsonov, and Tuomo Ruutu were each a minus-3. Manny Legace - in relief of Cam Ward - stopped 1 of 2 shots. Stephen Weiss and Nathan Horton both collected an assist to continue their hot streaks. Ex-Hurricane Dennis Seidenberg led (by far) both clubs with 27:42 TOI. Bryan McCabe (2g, 2a) has a 4-game point streak.

This was so much fun, let's do it again Saturday. Live Blog hits at 6pm.

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missed the game tonight as i’m graduating tomorrow but nice to see this offensive onslaught continue. a +5 from radek is quite the surprise, although i would say that about anyone’s +5.

look at the panthers: 105 goals, good for SEVENth in the league, who’d have thunk?

by alterego6487 on Dec 18, 2009 11:29 PM EST reply actions

by the way..

my grandmother made a happy pony reference at dinner.

by alterego6487 on Dec 18, 2009 11:40 PM EST up reply actions

Oh, man...

We were worried for a few minutes there. I don’t fault anyone on the PPG, but the Staal goal after was very troubling. Someone hit the collapse switch on that one, but after a couple dicey shifts they calmed back down and went back to playing well. By three minutes left there was no way the Canes were coming back as they were being completely outplayed.

Oh, and a bunch of people were bitching on the last powerplay at the end of the game because nothing was happening. Possibly because Panthers fans don’t see that move too much because our team’s not usually good enough. Anyway, the sharp eyed might have noted that Pete put a bunch of the kids out on that last PP since the game was already won and we were up a man. They deserved it. Other than Taffe’s miscue, passing to a stickless Keith Ballard, the third and fourth lines were solid last night. Weiss, not so much. Luckily that Dvorak-Reinprecht-Olesz line was on fire last night. We’ve been dogging Olesz a bit in the bitter and cynical section, but he had a very good game last night.

If the team plays three more periods like the last two last night then it will have been a very good week. The Panthers are in eighth with four points but everyone but the Canadiens have games in hand. And every team in the conference but Atlanta plays today. A win here is crucial (and would tie us in points with the Thrashers).

Florida Panthers: Giving the league a punching bag since 2000.

by Johnny B on Dec 19, 2009 9:59 AM EST reply actions

Anyway, the sharp eyed might have noted that Pete put a bunch of the kids out on that last PP since the game was already won and we were up a man.

Goldie or Lindsay mentioned that as well, noting that Pete wasn’t looking to “run up the score”.

Not sure if I agree with that philosophy on such a fragile (for lack of a better word) team, but it was satisfying to see a few new faces get some PP time.

Litter Box Cats - Your SBNation Florida Panthers Colossus

by Donny Rivette on Dec 19, 2009 11:01 AM EST reply actions

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Southeast Standings

	GP	W	L	OTL	PT
Washington Japers' Rink	82	54	15	13	121
Atlanta Bird Watchers Anonymous	82	35	34	13	83
Carolina Canes Country	82	35	37	10	80
Tampa Bay Raw Charge	82	34	36	12	80
Florida Litter Box Cats	82	32	37	13	77

(updated 4.12.2010 at 9:21 AM EDT)

Panthers Schedule

Next 5 Games

@ Edmonton The Copper & Blue	Sun 10/10	8:00 PM EDT
@ Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	Mon 10/11	10:00 PM EDT
@ Calgary Matchsticks and Gasoline	Thu 10/14	9:00 PM EDT
Tampa Bay Raw Charge	Sat 10/16	7:00 PM EDT
Dallas Defending Big D	Thu 10/21	7:30 PM EDT

Last 5 Games

Tampa Bay Raw Charge	Sun 04/11	L 1 - 3
@ Tampa Bay Raw Charge	Sat 04/10	SO - L 3 - 4
New Jersey In Lou We Trust	Thu 04/08	W 3 - 2
Ottawa Silver Seven	Tue 04/06	L 2 - 5
New York Rangers Blueshirt Banter	Sat 04/03	L 1 - 4

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