Cats Earn Point vs Avs

Nathan Horton and David Booth celebrate Booth's 12th goal of the season. (Getty Images)

By Dave Joseph for floridapanthers.com

The Panthers earned a point Sunday night. More importantly, they may have learned a lesson.

Despite losing 4-3 in a shootout to Colorado at BankAtlantic Center, the Panthers played one of their most fervent games of the season. Three times the Panthers came back from one-goal deficits and they played an aggressive brand of hockey they have sorely lacked over the past two weeks.

Yes, Milan Hejduk scored the only goal in the shootout. But the Panthers leave town Tuesday for a three-game road trip having to realize their only way of getting back to .500 is to play the way they did Sunday.

“There’s been a bit of frustration that we’re not getting the results we want at home,” said defenseman Bryan Allen of the Panthers six-game winless streak at home. “So it’s good to see that intensity and passion to do better.

“If you look at how we played as a team tonight, we played for each other and supported each other.”

David Booth, who scored his 12th goal of the season, said; “That’s how you get hot, by working and eventually, hard work will pay off and you’ll start getting lucky.”

The hard work paid off Sunday in terms of the Panther power play. For the first time in 13 games, the Panthers had more than four power plays. And for the first time in five games, the Panthers scored with the man advantage. Olli Jokinen and Jay Bouwmeester both scored on the power play.

Game Highlights
Starting Lineups
Panthers		Avalanche
Weiss	C	Stastny
Booth	LW	McLeod
Horton	RW	Hejduk
Allen	D	Hannan
Bouwmeester	D	Leopold
Vokoun	G	Theodore
Post-Game Video
Jacques Martin   Bryan Allen   David Booth   Brett McLean  Tomas Vokoun
PhotoGallery
Panthers vs Avalanche
Quote of the Game
"I don't know (where the feistiness came from) but it's good to see. Little things like that make a team come together sometimes. Playing for one another and supporting one another so it's good to see." -Defenseman Bryan Allen on the three fights in the first period.
Stat of the Game
After struggling on the power play of late, the Panthers scored twice with the man advantage. It was the first time they did that since December 7 (NY Islanders). That was a stretch of  16 games.
3 Stars Presented by Szrio Jewelry
1. Milan Hejduk 2. Andrew Brunette 3. David Booth

Tied 3-3 after overtime, Jokinen, Stephen Weiss and Nathan Horton failed to beat Avalanche goalie Jose Theadore. After stopping Marek Svatos and Wojtek Wolski on the shootout, Panther goalie Tomas Vokoun was beat by Hejduk.

“Toughest shot for a goalie,” Vokoun said. “Low, blocker side.”

After pulling themselves together Saturday to challenge the Lightning late in the third period, the Panthers took their energy to Sunday’s game. In fact, the Panthers exchanged goals and punches in the first period with the Avalanche.

After Jokinen, Horton and Steve Montador all dropped their gloves in the first 12 minutes, Bouwmeester scored the Panthers first power play goal in five games and only their second in 22 chances.

Bouwmeester’s goal, his seventh of the season at 14:52 of the first, tied the game at one and came on a wrist shot from the point that got by Theadore as Brett McLean and Weiss were both jamming the net.

After Svatos scored his 20th goal on the power play at 12:53 of the second period on the power play to give Colorado a 2-1, David Booth tied the game at two just 2:06 later with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Nathan Horton.

The Panthers came back a third time in the third period at 11:27. After Andrew Brunette scored his second goal of the game to make it 3-2, the Panthers went back on the power play. Defenseman Ruslan Salei drew the Avalanche to him when he skated in from the left point before passing the puck cross-ice to Jokinen, who blasted the puck from just above the faceoff circle past Theodore to help the Panthers to their first point on home ice since Dec. 22.

The Panthers will skate Tuesday morning at IncredibleIce before starting a three-game road through Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington. The Panthers are 11-11-1 on the road.