A spirited night (announced attendance: 12,500) at the BankAtlantic Center saw the Florida Panthers – under the eyes of new managing partners Stuart Siegel and Cliff Viner – fall to 4-2 in shootouts as opportunistic Los Angeles made good use of their growing wealth of talent.
The Cats, who led 2-0 at the midway point on markers by Nathan Horton and Cory Stillman, couldn’t hold the advantage, allowing the Kings to bang home three goals (2 on the PP) to turn the tables. Florida rookie Victor Oreskovich – playing in his seventh NHL contest – scored his first career goal in the Bigs to pull the Cats into a three-all tie, setting the stage for yet another overtime.
One shot was all either club could muster in the extra frame, so on to the now-familiar shootout, where the Panthers have been surprisingly successful in recent weeks. SOG heading into the skills-competition: 34-29, L.A.
Bottom line on the final result: Jack Johnson, who scored an earlier PP goal to get the Kings rolling in the second period, was the only shooter to find the net, scoring on Tomas Vokoun after a strangely quiet Anze Kopitar (1 assist while leading the NHL in goals) was unable to convert.
Rostislav Olesz (4 shots), Steven Reinprecht (1 assist), and Stillman (1 goal, 1 assist) were all turned away by Jonathan Quick.
Hey…though disappointing, it’s one more point.
Next up: Cats travel to Buffalo for a Wednesday meeting with the Sabres. Open Thread goes live at 6pm.