Florida Foiled By Fickle Third By Dave Joseph and wire reports for floridapanthers.com

It’s hard to describe the car wreck the Panthers turned into Wednesday evening. But to put it succinctly, their road to the playoffs got a lot tougher when they somehow managed to snatch defeat from victory at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.

Leading 3-1 with 13:46 remaining in the third period, the Sabres scored four unanswered goals – including three midway through the period in a span of 2:07 – to stun the Panthers 5-3 and send them reeling to their toughest loss of the season.

Rather than earning two points and climbing back into a tie with Montreal for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers remained in ninth with only eight games remaining in the regular season.

The Panthers, whose frustration spilled into several scuffles on the ice after Maxim Afinogenov scored an empty-net goal in the final minute, have no time to feel sorry for themselves. They play Thursday night at Philadelphia against a Flyer team ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference and on a three-game winning streak.

The Panthers are now 1-4-3 in their last eight games and badly need points Wednesday evening in Philadelphia as the third period has been their downfall, being outscored 14-3 over that span.

Tim Connolly, who capped the surge with the go-ahead goal, Clarke MacArthur, Jason Pominville and Craig Rivet also scored for Buffalo, which snapped an 0-3-1 skid and won for only the second time in eight games (2-5-1). With 78 points and nine games left, Buffalo remains in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings, but moved within five points of eighth-place Montreal.

Brett McLean had a goal and assist, and Richard Zednik and Michael Frolik also scored for Florida.

"I don't have an answer," Panthers defenseman Bryan McCabe said. "Obviously, we picked a bad time of the year to start blowing leads. We have to find a way to remedy that."

+ Click for larger photo Other Links: - By The Numbers - Game Photos: Send A Photo - Game Highlights - Photo Gallery   Tonight’s Mayors Jewelers Three Star Selections of the Game are:   1st: Jason Pominville 2nd: Brett McLean 3rd: Patrick Kaleta Mayors is the Official Jeweler of the Florida Panthers, please visit www.mayors.com or your local South Florida Mayors location.

"Everybody's been writing us off and telling us we have no character in this room and blah, blah, blah," Tellqvist said, referring to the Sabres' four-goal third period. "This just shows everybody that we really want to win."

The momentum distinctly changed shortly after Frolik scored a fluke goal - he broke his stick on his shot and the puck caromed in off Sabres defender Henrik Tallinder - to put Florida up 3-1 early in the third period.

Back came the Sabres. Pominville deflected in Tallinder's point shot to cut it to 3-2 at the 6:14 mark. MacArthur tied it 51 seconds later, blasting a shot through the legs of Tomas Vokoun.

Connolly then scored a power-play goal at the 8:21 mark, when his shot from the left point deflected in off the stick of Panthers' defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and past Vokoun.

Panthers coach Peter DeBoer squarely placed the blame on Vokoun.

"We need a big save at a critical time in the third period to win a game. I don't think we've gotten one lately," DeBoer said. "You can't let (the loss) be devastating. The goalie's got to close the door when you're in that situation. You know what? He didn't."

Vokoun finished with 40 saves while making his 11th straight start. It marked the seventh time - and fourth straight - the goalie has faced 30 or more shots during that stretch.

Vokoun was nearly lost for words to describe the meltdown.

"This is a tough loss for us. I'm still trying to realize what happened," he said.

Zednik experienced a scary moment 5 minutes into the third period, when teammate Cory Stillman's shot from left circle sailed over the net and struck Zednik in the right side of his face shield. Zednik was cut across the nose by the force of the shot and immediately skated to the bench, where he was escorted to the locker room.

Zednik did not require stitches, and returned to the bench a few minutes later.

The play eerily occurred near the same spot in the right corner of the Buffalo zone, where Zednik sustained a gruesome neck injury, when his throat was cut during a collision with former teammate Olli Jokinen on Feb. 10, 2008.

Notes: Connolly snapped a seven-game goal drought. ... After scoring a goal on four power-play chances in a 3-2 overtime loss to Carolina on Monday, the Panthers went 0-for-2 against Buffalo. They have not scored power-play goals in consecutive games since Feb. 15-17. ... The Panthers opened a three-game trip in which they'll play three games in four days, concluding at Dallas on Saturday.