Panthers Wrap-Up: Panthers 6, Penguins 4
Kopecky's first hat trick, power play, helps Panthers end home losing streak.
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 SUNRISE, Fla — Tomas Kopecky recorded his first career hat trick and Tomas Fleischmann had the go-ahead score for his 100th career goal, lifting the Florida Panthers to a 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. |
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 - Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell. |
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 2. Pens Make It A Game: Despite the three-goal lead, the Penguins fought back and it was less than a minute later (9:51 mark) that Dustin Jeffrey's shot from the slot somehow beat Jose Theodore. Then the Pens killed off a Cats power play and immediately scored on the ensuing rush as Paul Martin lasered a shot top shelf with 5:52 to play in the second. The game would be tied off some bad luck as Chris Kunitz's shot from by the goal line went in off of Mike Weaver's skate with 40.1 seconds left in the period. 3. Tomas Squared, And Clem: After Pittsburgh tied the game late in the second, the Panthers could have gotten down and given up. When Tomas Fleischmann was called for a penalty just 1:19 into the final 20, it could have gone side ways. Instead the Florida penalty kill did their job, killed it off and Fleischmann stepped out of the box, took a long pass from Jerred Smithson and worked his way down on a 2-on-1 break. He looked off the pass and fired it far side on Marc-Andre Fleury for what would eventually be the game-winner 10 seconds after his penalty ended. The Penguins, desperate to tie it up once again, threw everything at Scott Clemmensen who started the third in place of Theodore. Coming in cold, Clemmensen was brilliant in turning aside all 15 shots. With the net empty, Kopecky stole the puck in his own zone and under pressure, banked it off the boards and the puck rolled down the ice before finally depositing into the back of the net for his first career hat trick. The ending was a relief for the Panthers and their fans as they ended a five-game home losing streak as it was their first win at home in the month of February. |
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 Memorable twitter posts from the game.
@me_kimba: Congrats to Kopy on his first hat trick!! WHAT A GAME! |
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 Memorable fan posts from the game.
Cindy Berger: I'm doing a happy dance Panthers!!!! Alex Cruz: congrats to Kopeky on the hat trick and the Panthers on the win! Sebastian Lovas: Great win. Really needed this one. Entertaining game and congrats to Kopecky for a sick game! We need to play like this more often! Clemmer saved us in the last period. Chris Burt: Finally showed some heart at the end. Thumbs up to Clem. Jarmila Kubikova: Beautiful game! GO CATS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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 1. He had scored two goals five times before in his career but never gotten the chance for hats to be thrown. That changed Tuesday as Tomas Kopecky opened the scoring with two power play goals from just outside the crease and then closed it out with his third into the empty net with a minute left on the clock. |
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35 Shots, 34 Saves, .971 SV%
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Panthers
Penguins
Author: Glenn Odebralski | FloridaPanthers.com
