Flyers Outbattle Panthers

The Florida Panthers returned from Canada for a one-game stop at home and lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 at the Bank Atlantic Center on Sunday. The Panthers and the Flyers entered the game with the same record after 15 games at 8-4-3. Both teams had good scoring opportunities on two power plays each in the first period. The Flyers took the lead at 16:10 as Danny Briere(5) followed up a rebound shot with a backhand from the right of the crease that hit the crossbar before going in. Philadelphia increased their lead 6:50 into the second period as an unlikely player scored. Braydon Coburn put in his first of the season, his first tally in 40 games, as he finished up a give-and-go play with Jakub Voracek in the Panthers zone. Florida stepped up just three minutes later as Evgeny Dadonov, playing in his first NHL game this season after being called up from the minors, received a pass from Ed Jovanovski and fired a shot from the slot area. Following a Maxime Talbot four minute double minor penalty for high sticking at 3:13 of the third period, the Flyers were rewarded a penalty shot while shorthanded as Jason Garrison tripped Matt Read(4) as he headed through the slot on a breakaway. Read was able to squeeze the penalty shot through the pads of Jose Theodore who was in the butterfly position at 4:14. It was a little too late for Florida as they pulled the goalie and closed the gap to 3-2 with eight seconds remaining in the game. Tomas Fleishmann, his sixth goal this season, was able to rip a shot from the inner edge of the left circle on an assist by Tomas Kopecky. The Panthers head out of town for their next two games as they travel to Dallas and St. Louis facing those teams for the only time this season.