Panthers Wrap-Up: Panthers 3, Devils 0
Theodore shuts the door with 30 saves as Cats move within one win from moving on to Eastern Conference Semifinals.
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 Scottie Upshall also scored for Florida, which leads the Eastern Conference first-round series 3-2. The Panthers' last series victory came in the 1996 East finals, and they'll have two chances to snap that drought. FULL RECAP |
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 - Head coach Kevin Dineen on Jose Theodore's play between the pipes. |
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 2. A Power Play Strike: The Panthers and Devils played a very close game for the opening two periods. Shots were even at 11 after one and the Panthers doubled up the shots in the second by a 12-6 margin. Thanks to the strong play of Theodore and Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur it looked like one goal might be enough. That goal came off the stick of Kris Versteeg just four minutes into the middle period. 30 seconds had gone by in a Marek Zidlicky interference call when Stephen Weiss found Versteeg from outside the face-off circle and the winger one-timed a low shot past Brodeur for his second of the post-season. Florida finished the night 1-for-6 on the man advantage but that one that they did convert on was huge. 3. Total Team Effort Gets Cats One Win Away: With New Jersey attempting to knot the score in the third, the Panthers went into lock down. Erik Gudbranson stepped up. So did Shawn Matthias and Tomas Kopecky. The entire team pulled together and thwarted the Devils attack. That same effort gave the Cats a two-goal cushion with 6:43 to play. Matthias did the dirty work at center ice and Scottie Upshall dumped the puck in. Then Versteeg outraced Brodeur for the puck (limited by the trapezoid) and put a backhand to the front of the net where a crashing Upshall put the puck into wide open net to set the BankAtlantic Center off rocking. After Gudbranson cleared hte puck with a little over two minutes to play without a stick, he was whistled for roughing. With Brodeur pulled for the extra attacker, the Devils had a 6-on-4 advantage. It didn't matter as Kopecky blocked a shot near the blueline and then raced in on the empty net. Hooked by Ilya Kovalchuk on the play, the goal was awarded to the Panthers with 34 seconds remaining on the clock. The 3-0 shutout victory was huge as it moves the Cats to 3-2 in the series. That gives them two shots at posting one victory and moving on to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. |
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 Memorable twitter posts from the game.
@LilMissRatTrick: Prom last night was so much fun, and tonight's #FlaPanthers game was incredible! I'm one #happyhuman :) |
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 Memorable fan posts from the game.
Cape Vape: Love seeing the rats rain down in South Florida again! Good job Cats!! Steven Swam: by far, the best entire gane effort of the series, GO PANTHERS!!!!!! Dan Janoff: Incredible. Panthers fans should be proud of themselves tonight. James Wiens: I can't stop smiling jose got the shut out I called earlier before the game started woo I just super stoked! Rosa Ruiz: Congrats Jose , Good revenge. Please do the same in the next. Please. |
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 1. A lot of stats dealing with the number one. The Panthers scored on just one of their six power play opportunities but it was an important one as Kris Versteeg's second period marker stood as the game-winner. Also a couple of playoff firsts. Recalled earlier in the day, Tyson Strachan played in his first NHL playoff game. Also, setting up the second goal of the game, Shawn Matthias picked up his first playoff point with the assist. |
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30 Shots, 30 Saves, 1.000 SV%
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Panthers
DEVILS
Author: Glenn Odebralski | FloridaPanthers.com
