After dropping four in a row, all it took for the Florida Panthers to find some offense was rolling out a heavy complement of starters.
The Cats got second period goals from Colton Sceviour, Aaron Ekblad and Vincent Trocheck to snap a 1-1 tie and finish off the preseason with a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at Tate Rink in West Point, NY.
New Jersey opened the scoring at 3:05 of the first period when veteran defenseman Andy Greene beat Roberto Luongo.
Jaromir Jagr evened the game with a power-play goal at the 9:45 mark, redirecting a Jonathan Marchessault into the back of the net.
Marchessault would later pick up a second helper with a dandy pass on Ekblad’s marker.
Luongo went the distance for the Panthers and finished with 25 stops.
The other goal he surrendered came off the stick of Mike Cammalleri in the final frame with the Devils on a power play.
Cory Schneider started for the New Jersey and gave up all four Florida goals on 15 shots. Keith Kinkaid came on in relief and stopped 8 shots.
Odds & Sods
- Jonathan Hubderdeau left the game in the first period and did not return. Sergey Kalinin’s skate caught Huberdeau somewhere around the ankle. Huberdeau will have an MRI to survey the extent of the laceration. Tendon damage is the main concern.
- Before the game, the Cats named Derek MacKenzie captain. Wise decision before the torch is passed to one of the young guns.
- In personnel news, the Cats traded long-time farmhand Jonathan Racine to the Montreal Canadiens for left wing Tim Bozon, who will report to AHL Springfield.
- Speaking of Springfield, the Thunderbirds blanked Hartford 3-0 last night for another preseason win. Mike McKenna stopped 19 shots and the T-Birds got goals from Graham Black, Chase Balisy and Logan Shaw. (recap)
- The Panthers finished the exhibition slate with a 2-2-2 record. The games that matter begin Thursday night with these same Devils visiting the BB&T Center./