Panthers Get By Sabres

The Florida Panthers took on the Buffalo Sabres in the final game of a four-game homestand at Bank Atlantic Center on Saturday night. The Cats won 3-2 in a shootout and now have won four straight games. The win streak of four games is the longest for the franchise since they won seven straight games in 2008. It was a big four-point swing game in which Florida led Buffalo, tenth in the Eastern Conference, by six points as they entered the contest. The Sabres got an early goal just 1:15 into the game as Tyler Ennis scored from up close with assists by Drew Stafford and Marcus Foligno. Florida failed to get a shot on goal in the first 17 minutes of the game. Mikael Samuelsson scored his 11st goal on the power play at 17:15 as Tomas Fleischmann and Stephen Weiss picked up the assists. Fleischmann set a single-season record in points notching his 52nd. He had 51 points with the Washington Capitals in 2009-10. Samuelsson now has a three-game point streak. John Madden scored in his second consecutive game just 38 seconds later as he flipped a wrist shot from the left circle over the right shoulder of Ryan Miller for a Florida 2-1 lead. Buffalo tied the game at 9:41 of the second period as Derek Roy put the puck in on a rebound from a slap shot by Jason Pominville. Neither team scored in the third period as both squads combined for five shots on goal in the third. The Sabres had four while the Panthers had one. Florida tied their season-low shots on goal in one period which was done against the New Jersey Devils back on December 13 in the third period. Both teams did not have any shots on goal in the five-minute overtime period which led to the shootout. Wojtek Wolski scored on the Panthers second attempt as put a wrist shot in off the left post by Miller. Ennis matched it on the Sabres second attempt as he faked the backhand shot and went forehand on Jose Theodore. Both teams would miss on their next four shots in the shootout. Dmitry Kulikov, who missed the last 23 games due to a knee injury, was called on by Panthers coach Kevin Dineen to take the next shot. He came on net and scored on a backhand shot. Theodore made a stick save on Drew Stafford to give Florida the win. The Cats have 83 points and lead second-place Washington by five points in the Southeast Division. Florida have several days off then travel to Philadelphia and take face the Flyers on Tuesday.