Panthers Even Series Against Devils

It was a chance to even the first round series for the Florida Panthers on Sunday night at the Bank Atlantic Center. They did with an impressive victory over the New Jersey Devils 4-2 in game two of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. The best-of-seven series is now tied up at 1-1. It was the first time the Panthers won a playoff game since the opening game of the 1997 first-round series against the New York Rangers at the Miami Arena, just two days short of 15 years. Florida started off strong as Andy Greene was called for a tripping on Marcel Goc eleven seconds into the game. The Panthers capitalized on their first power play and took a 1-0 lead at 0:23. Kris Versteeg threw a pass from the left corner to Mikael Samuelsson at the blue line. He sent a shot toward the net with traffic in the crease area. After Martin Brodeur made the initial save, longest-tenured Panthers center Stephen Weiss put in the rebound from the low slot. A big surprise was the limited amount of shots on goal after one period as Florida had three while New Jersey got four. Late in the first period, the Devils received two penalties at 19:43. David Clarkson for charging and Alexei Ponikarovsky for high sticking. The Cats would have a five-on-three advantage as they entered the second period. Stephen Weiss picked up his second goal of the game at 1:12. Jason Garrison fired a shot from beyond the right circle that bounced off Marcel Goc in front of the crease. Weiss placed the wrist shot from the low right circle over the left shoulder of Brodeur for a 2-0 margin. Florida kept the momentum and extended their lead to 3-0 at 14:39. Goc gave a give-and-go pass with Brian Campbell on the right-wing boards then let go a shot from the right face-off circle that squeezed in. New Jersey Devils attempted to come back in this game early in the third period with two goals. Andy Greene kept the puck in the Panthers zone on the left point as he stopped it at the blue line. He put a lead pass ahead to Travis Zajac in the low left circle. He then blasted a shot that went between the pads of Jose Theodore at 0:48. Just over one minute later, Adam Henrique sent a cross-ice pass from the left wing into the crease area where it was redirected by Iyla Kovalchuk at 2:02. New Jersey pulled their goalie with 1:15 remaining and had several shots on net. Tomas Fleischmann skated down the ice by himself and put the puck into an open net at 19:59. Florida won for only the second time in game two of a playoff series. They did in game two of the 1996 Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Boston Bruins. Game three of the series will be on Tuesday night at the Prudentinal Center in Newark.