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Tuesday Caterwaul: Florida Panthers Open Forum

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Florida Panthers are one of four Atlantic Division teams who will be idle tonight. Detroit, Ottawa and Toronto are the others. With the Maple Leafs also getting the night off, the Cats will remain in second place, just one point behind the Buds, who will host the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night while the Panthers do battle with the Los Angeles Kings in Sunrise.

Over the weekend, the Charlotte Checkers split a pair of games against the Milwaukee Admirals at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Panther Arena.

Milwaukee won Friday’s tilt by a 4-1 count with the only Charlotte goal going to John Leonard early in the third. Assists on Leonard’s team-leading 18th of the season were credited to Trevor Carrick and Justin Sourdif. Ken Appleby took the loss, finishing with 11 saves on 13 shots faced. Matthew Murray stopped 42 shots for the Admirals.

The Checkers took away two points on Saturday when Michael Benning scored 3:22 into overtime, from Sourdif and Rasmus Asplund, to give Charlotte a 4-3 win. Second period goals courtesy of Oliver Okuliar and Riley Hughes erased a two-goal deficit. Kyle Criscuolo’s power-play goal 51 seconds into the third tied things up again after Milwaukee had retaken the lead late in the middle frame. In addition to his game-winner, Benning collected an assist, as did Sandis Vilmanis, Mikulas Hovorka, C.J. Smith and Carrick. Asplund finished the game with two helpers. Veteran Chris Driedger made 13 saves to raise his record to 9-5-3.

Charlotte will finish off its four-game road trip against the Iowa Wild tonight in Des Moines.

Tuesday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

  • BOSTON (25-20-6 56P) at BUFFALO (18-26-5 41P) 7 p.m.
  • Winnipeg (34-14-3 71P) at MONTREAL (24-20-5 53P) 7 p.m.
  • Chicago (15-29-5 35P) at TAMPA BAY (26-19-3 55P) 7 p.m.

Idle: TOR (62P), FLA (61P), OTT (56P), DET (53P)

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