Wild Slip By Panthers

The Florida Panthers finished off a four-game homestand Thursday night at Bank Atlantic Center with their fourth consecutive loss. This time against the Minnesota Wild by the score of 3-2 in a shootout. Stephen Weiss set a franchise record as he played in his 614th game with the Florida Panthers. He passed Radek Dvorak who had two stints with the team. Neither team scored in the first period although Florida stopped two Minnesota power plays. In the second period, the Panthers were able to score on their second power play at 13:23. After an offensive zone face-off, Weiss was able to drop a pass to Tomas Kopecky at the top of the right circle. His shot bounced off traffic in the high crease area where Mikael Samuelsson pounced on the puck from the left of the crease into the open side of the cage. For Samuelsson it was his eighth goal this season. Minnesota tied the game 1-1 at 19:40. Marek Zidlicky broke his stick as he fired a soft shot on net from the top of the zone. Danny Heatley redirected the puck from the slot area forward and Kyle Brodziak slammed it in from the low slot. The Wild got their first lead of the game just 1:14 into the third period as they converted on a power-play goal. Heatley blasted a shot from the right circle that was saved by Jose Theodore, but former Florida Panther Matt Cullen put in the rebound from the crease area. Florida evened it up at 2-2 with 4:12 left in regulation as Sean Bergenheim made a turnaround shot from the low right circle following a right-wing pass by Brian Campbell. The game was decided in a shooutout after no scoring in overtime. The Wild scored on their only two attempts as Erik Christensen and Cullen prevailed over Theodore for the victory. Kris Versteeg and Bergenheim failed on their attempts on net. The Winnipeg Jets won their game and surpassed the Panthers for first place in the Southeast Division. Florida dropped down to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.