Islanders Cool Panthers

    The Florida Panthers returned home for one game and lost their sixth consecutive game as they fell to the New York Islanders 4-3 on Saturday night at BB&T Center. The Cats have lost nine of their last ten games and head immediately out of town to play five straight games on the road.
    Panthers captain and defenseman Ed Jovanovski was in the lineup after he missed the last 22 games due to a lower-body injury. Defenseman T. J. Brennan made his debut with Florida after he was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
    New York(13-12-3) scored with 4:34 left in the first period. Center Franz Nielsen recovered the puck behind the Panthers cage, whirled around and found right wing Kyle Okposo for a one-time slapshot from the slot. Florida has given up the first goal in nine of their last ten games.
    The Islanders struck again with 2:01 remaining to increase their lead to 2-0. Defenseman Mark Streit skated the puck down the right wing and backhanded a pass to the top of the zone. Defenseman Radek Martinek smashed a slapshot by goalie Scott Clemmensen with traffic in front.
    Florida(7-16-6) had a bigger hole to climb out of as they gave up a goal just 33 seconds into the second period. Right wing Brad Boyes passed the puck to center John Tavaras in the high slot and returned it to him in the low right circle. Boyes pass in front went off center Tomas Kopecky's skate and into the Panthers net.
    The Cats made a three-goal comeback as they scored three goals in a 1:43 span early in the third period. It started as Brennan threw a pass from the left-wing wall down low to right wing Mike Santorelli who attempted to stuff the puck in from the left of the net. After a scramble in the crease area, Brennan followed with his first goal as a Panther at 5:09.
    The second tally happened just 34 seconds later at 5:43. Left wing Tomas Fleischmann sent the puck from the left corner to the inner edge of the right circle where center Marcel Goc put in his third goal of the season.
    The Isles called a timeout to stop the momentum after that goal, but that did not help as the Cats scored again at 6:52. Right wing Jack Skille took a slapshot from close range in the slot area and it was stopped by goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Satorelli pounced on the rebound in the low slot and scored to tie the game at 3-3. It was Santorelli's second goal of the season.
    New York regained the lead with 7:05 to go when left wing Casey Cizikas scored as he received a pass below the left circle from Colin McDonald, who circled around the Panthers net to set up the play.
    There was only one penalty called in the entire game as Florida went 0-for-1 on the power play. Nabokov held on and improved to 13-8-3 as he made 27 saves while Clemmensen dropped to 2-5-2 as he stopped 21 shots. Florida will begin their five-game road trip on Tuesday night at Carolina.