It’s on.
The Florida Panthers announced their presence in the playoff race with authority by beating the Boston Bruins 2-1 in a shootout Saturday night in Sunrise.
The Panthers now trail the Bruins by four points for the final wildcard position in the east, a small mountain to climb considering where the team was a few short weeks ago. They’ll get a chance to continue their climb when they visit Boston at the end of the month. They’ll to try and take game two of this season defining three game series between the two teams.
Jonathan Huberdeau almost sent the roof of the rink into orbit by nearly beating Tuukka Rask midway through the first frame. Rask was able to negate a wick backhanded spin shot by Huberdeau that got the crowd buzzing.
A few minutes later Jimmy Hayes did what Huberdeau could not as he broke the deadlock for his eighteenth of the season. Hayes held his position in front of the net and banked in a nifty feed from Dave Bolland. The rink of the BB&T center should be passing over South Africa right about now.
The second period started off well enough until Bolland was sent off for high sticking. The Bruins capitalized on the ensuing powerplay with style. Patrice Bergeron netted his twentieth of the season after finishing a beautiful set of passes by finishing off a slot pass by Ryan Spooner.
Entering the third period the Cats trailed the Bs seventeen to eighteen in shots but held a twenty-eight to twenty-six shot attempt advantage at even strength.
It was evident that the Panthers knew that their season hung on the balance of the next goal of the game and it showed. They were able to sustain pressure on the offensive zone for an extended period of time on back to back shifts but were unable to turn the pressure into the lead they so desired.
Bolland nearly gave the Panthers the lead in the third but luck and desperation prevented a sure thing from going in. He had the puck all alone in the crease with a wide open net staring right at him but fanned on the shot just as Rask stretched back to jam his stick and prevent the tally.
The rest of the third and overtime would solve nothing and we would enter the shootout locked up at one. If the shootout is a circus then Roberto Luongo is the Ringmaster. He stopped attempts by Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Spooner to ensure that he upheld his end of the bargain. The shooters kept theirs as well. Brandon Pirri seemed to slow down the very fabric of space time itself on his way to the net before sniping it clean past Rask for the win and the all important second point.
The point was paramount for the Cats to stay in the playoff race as Ottawa best Toronto earlier in the night to keep pace with the three point game in Sunrise.
With ten games remaining for the Panthers, two of them against Boston and one against Ottawa, the final spot is up for grabs and ripe for the taking. The Cats showed why they’re right in the mix tonight. They got out-of-this-world goaltending and stuck to their structure despite being outchanced 23-11 in all situations. If the Panthers can count on Luongo playing as hes since the start of the campaign and cash in on their high percentage scoring chances then a playoff birth is not just attainable, it’s going to happen.
The Cats hit the road for a 5 game stretch facing off against every team in the Atlantic Division save for Buffalo. A season defining trip indeed.
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