Wednesday Caterwaul: Florida Panthers GameDay Open Forum

By Donny Rivette@LitterBoxCats Mar 21, 2012, 9:54am EDT

Though he's ridden a few frustrating pointless stretches throughout the season, Florida Panthers winger Sean Bergenheim beautifully encapsulated the role of "secondary scorer" Tuesday by launching a frightful wrister past Flyers netminder Ilya Bryzgalov, who took his first regulation-time loss since February 28, a span of ten games (8-1-1). Bergie's goal stood as the evening's gamewinner, but he was beyond mere scoring stats, collecting 3 hits, 1 BkS, and ultimately led the Cats with 3 SOG (from a team total of 13) in 17:49.

Final - 3.20.2012	1	2	3	Total
Florida Panthers	1	1	0	2
Philadelphia Flyers	0	1	0	1

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RECAPS: Litter Box Cats * SB Nation Florida * Broad Street Hockey

The Eastern Front

Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	L10	Streak
1	x-NY Rangers	72	45	20	7	97	199	160	25-9-2	20-11-5	4-5-1	Won 1
2	Boston	72	42	27	3	87	236	178	22-13-2	20-14-1	4-6-0	Won 2
3	Florida	72	36	23	13	85	182	198	20-9-8	16-14-5	6-3-1	Won 5
4	Pittsburgh	72	45	21	6	96	239	184	25-8-2	20-13-4	9-0-1	Won 1
5	Philadelphia	73	42	23	8	92	232	206	19-11-5	23-12-3	7-2-1	Lost 1
6	New Jersey	74	42	27	5	89	201	191	20-13-3	22-14-2	6-4-0	Won 1
7	Ottawa	74	37	27	10	84	221	214	19-15-4	18-12-6	4-4-2	Lost 2
8	Washington	73	37	30	6	80	198	208	23-10-3	14-20-3	5-4-1	Won 1

9	Buffalo	73	34	29	10	78	187	207	18-11-8	16-18-2	6-2-2	Won 1
10	Winnipeg	73	34	31	8	76	196	211	23-11-4	11-20-4	4-5-1	Lost 2
11	Carolina	73	29	29	15	73	194	217	18-13-6	11-16-9	5-3-2	Won 3
12	Toronto	74	32	34	8	72	210	232	16-14-6	16-20-2	3-6-1	Lost 2
13	Tampa Bay	72	32	33	7	71	202	247	21-14-2	11-19-5	4-5-1	Lost 3
14	NY Islanders	73	30	32	11	71	174	218	15-16-6	15-16-5	4-4-2	Won 2
15	Montreal	73	28	32	13	69	191	203	13-15-9	15-17-4	4-3-3	OT 2

Why last night rocked:

PIT over WPG, 8-4: now nine points and one game behind Florida, Jets are just about unofficially cooked in Eastern race barring a remarkable collapse by WSH; 3H/6R for 'Peggers spells it out rather blatantly
NJ over OTT, 1-0: Kovy continues his travels in the Atlanta Wayback Machine, securing the only goal - his 31st of the season and 400th for the career - over a Senators squad missing G Craig Anderson (possibly soon to return, yard-bird-dicing tragedy) and F Jason Spezza (75P/29G, "illness")
NYI over TOR, 5-2; not that the outcome of this game mattered at all in the Big Picture, but worth noting simply because the Leafs had a 2-1 lead

Why last night jonesed:

G Scott Clemmensen was all of that and then some, but was denied the legitimate shutout due to an errant - and very inadvertent - deflection in the crease by D Ed Jovanovski. Completely accidental.

Panthers Playoff Update:

FLA defeated PHI 2-1 (REG), playoff odds up 2.1 to 99.3% per Sports Club Stats

Why tonight is a Big Deal in SoFla, beyond the obvious:

Focusing on clubs within 5 points of Panthers (85P); teams FLA needs to lose in bold…

MTL at BUF (78P): once more breaking our own rule here with Sabres seven out as of this morning but a victory - likely an easy one - keeps the hope alive in Buffalo for that constantly evolving 8th seed

Next up for the Cats:

Tonight from Raleigh; an official on-line feed may or may not be available, and decisions to stream the in-house feed have historically been made very close to initial puck-drop. The LBC Game Thread cares little about such details and plows ahead in glorious MollerVision at 6:30. Be sure to take a moment out of your day to frolic in Canes Country.

Did you know:

FLA's current four-game winning streak vs CAR ties the Panthers' all-time best stretch against the Hurricanes, set only once before (January 25 through October 9, 2003)

Tuesday’s Organizational News:

Three Stars: Scott Clemmensen (35 saves), Eric Wellwood (1G), Brian Campbell (2A).
Tuesday's scratches: F Mike Santorelli, Jerred Smithson , D Keaton Ellerby
Jacob Markstrom allows 4G on 34 shots as Rampage fall to Grand Rapids in SO. Shots-on-goal for San Antonio: 45; four players with 5