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Rookie Tournament Game 2: Baby Predators 5, Baby Panthers 2

The Florida Panthers rookie team took part in the second game of their weekend today, and had a much tougher experience than they did in their first game.

Colin Stevens was in net for Florida, while Jusse Saros was in goal for Nashville.

Both Stevens and Saros played well throughout the first period, with both teams getting plenty of chances, and the goaltenders making plenty of saves.

The second period was more eventful, but not in a good way. The Predators put three pucks behind Stevens and were by far the better team in the middle frame.

The Cats didn’t have many offensive chances, and the few that they did manage to create were either stuffed by Saros or off target.

Overall, Nashville was just a much better team in the second period.

The Panthers looked better in the third period, but couldn’t mount a comeback and fell by a final score of 5-2.

Odds and ends

  • The team’s power play still looks pretty bad. They were given another six opportunities in this game, so overall, they’ve only managed to go 1-for-10 with the man advantage, and the only goal came during a 5-on-3.
  • Mike Matheson is flashing some really high-end potential in this tournament. Solid defensively all game, picked up a goal on the power play, and looked like someone who can step into the NHL very soon. I don’t think he makes the jump this year, but if he proves himself in the AHL, look for him to arrive on the blue line in 2016-2017. /

The Cats are back at it again tomorrow, taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning at 2 P.M. The game will be played at Germain Arena in Estero, and admission is free to the public.

I’ll be live-tweeting the action again, so if you can’t make it to the game, be sure to follow @shane1342o on Twitter to catch all of the highlights.

(Thanks to the Pucking Panthers podcast for video-taping some of the action after the live-stream provided by the Lightning went down. Wouldn’t have been able to follow along without them.)

Talking Points