Panthers Wrap-Up: Devils 5, Panthers 2
Deadlocked in close game, Devils pull away with two empty netters.
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 "I'm always going to remember this," said Elias, who had a goal, two assists and made a huge defensive play on a penalty kill in the closing minute, leading the Devils to a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers Friday night. FULL RECAP |
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 - Defenseman Mike Weaver. |
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 2. Unable To Take A Lead: Tied at two early in the second, the Panthers had several great opportunities to take their first lead of the game over the next 20 minutes of game time. The best chance had to go to winger Kris Versteeg just 3:06 after Barch tied the game. All alone to the left of Hedberg, the puck found it's way onto Versteeg. With a wide open net to shoot at and the Devils netminder trying to get over, Versteeg paused for just a second before ringing the puck off the crossbar and into the net as Hedberg flailed at the shot. Barch and newly signed John Madden also almost connected on another chance early in the third. Barch put a puck in the crease area and it was just in a bad spot between Madden's stick and skate otherwise it would have been a tap in goal for the wide-open forward. 3. Late Chance But Empty Netters Seal It: With only one power play the first 57 minutes, the Panthers caught a whistle late in the third. There Zach Parise was called for delay of game after putting the puck over the glass with 2:52 remaining. A golden opportunity to tie the game with being up a man, the Panthers could not muster a legitimate offensive threat in the first minute and a half of the penalty. Still trailing, they sent starting netminder Jacob Markstrom to the bench for an extra attacker, giving them a 6-on-4 advantage. The move did not pay off and New Jersey salted away the victory with a shorthanded empty netter from Ilya Kovalchuk, his second of the game, with a minute showing on the clock. The Panthers kept Markstrom on the bench and Parise made it a 5-2 final with another empty netter 20 seconds later. Tough to see such a gritty effort by the team go for naught as the outcome failed to produce points. |
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 Memorable twitter posts from the game.
@JimHardiman: Come on, #flapanthers, you can do better. Monday would be a good time to start. |
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 Memorable fan posts from the game.
T.j. Peterson: About the game: FINISHING!!! We should have been up 3-2 3 different times!! We got a crucial point in NY, we screwed up the trip tonight. Monday vs the Canucks is now a massive game and Luongo will be fresh after a rest. If the Cats keep slipping who knows what's going to happen? Jeff Bye: very disappointing !!!.......starting to remind me of last year and the year before that...................we should have had that game 5-2.......address this stuff now or we will be 4th in our division very soon. John D. Dechert: Terrible......ugh Dara Ross: you can't just have 1 line to win games. everyone should have known that weiss, flash, and versteeg couldn't keep up the scoring at the rate they were going. we need consistency from everyone and us only being able to score 2 goals a game is not gonna have us winning no matter who is in net for us |
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1 Goal, 2 Assists, +3, 2 Shots
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Panthers
DEVILS
Author: Glenn Odebralski | FloridaPanthers.com
