Above is your Biased Florida Highlight of the game; an Alexander Sulzer blast tipped by Ryan Carter to open scoring in the second frame. Darcy Hordichuk gained the additional assist with some spectacular play along the boards; this line buzzed throughout what became a 2-1 shootout victory for Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins.
Despite a relative shortage of Pittsburgh shots (28), Tomas Vokoun made a dozen Big Money saves before exiting immediately following the third period (back issues). In relief, backup Scott Clemmensen stopped 4 shots in overtime before Alex Kovalev and James Neal scored to seal it in the shootout. Mike Santorelli (miss) and Niclas Bergfors (stopped) were FLA’s only attempts.
Defenseman Ben Lovejoy‘s third of the year nailed the home club’s tying goal in regulation, assisted by – who else? – Kovalev and Neal.
As mentioned often in the Game Thread, the Panthers were very competitive throughout, gaining the lead in SOG (38-28), penalty kill (3-3), faceoffs (37-25!), and remaining remarkably close in hits (35-33, PIT).
Notes: Speaking of hits, David Booth led all players with 7; Carter and Jared Staal each finished with 5. Jason Garrison displayed continued improvement on the backend with 4 SOG and 5 blocked-shots; his movement was most impressive on the powerplay. Michal Repik and Booth led FLA in SOG (6 apiece). Mike Santorelli and Marty Reasoner recovered from hideous faceoff percentages early, finishing 10-6 and 13-8, respectively. Stephen Weiss was a -1 (2 SOG). PIT has now won an NHL-record four straight shootouts. More from PensBurgh here.
Next up: Cats in Columbus on Tuesday; Live Game Thread at 6:30.