SUNRISE, Fla – The Florida Panthers ran all over the New Jersey Devils for two periods, and then held on for dear life when the Devils came roaring back in the final period.
New Jersey’s Andy Greene committed a tripping penalty right off the opening faceoff. Seconds later, Stephen Weiss fired a rebound past Martin Brodeur and the Panthers took a 1-0 lead 23 seconds into the game.
With just 17 seconds remaining in the period, the Devils’ Alexei Ponikarovsky and David Clarkson committed unusual simultaneous penalties that carried over to the second period.
Florida took advantage 1:12 into the period to extend their lead to 2-0. Weiss scored his second rebound goal off a shot from the point. Marcel Goc followed up at 14:39 to give Florida what looked like an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
“Special teams were the difference,” Devil’s Head coach Peter DeBoer said. “We were totally outplayed for two periods. You can’t play well for only 20 minutes and expect to win.”
The Devils came out of the second intermission with a vengeance, scoring two goals in the first 2:02 of period three to narrow the lead to 3-2. Travis Zajac scored just 48 second into the period, followed by Ilya Kovalchuk’s goal at 2:02.
The Devils continued to pressure the Panthers by successfully dumping the puck deep into their offensive zone, tying up their defense and creating several quality scoring chances.
But the Panther’s were able to stem the tide and put the game away when Tomas Fleishmann tallied an empty net goal at 19:59.
The series moves to New Jersey for game three onTuesday night.
Contact the author at: mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com
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