Panthers Celebrate 20th Anniversary With Win

    The Florida Panthers celebrated their 20th anniversary as an NHL franchise on Friday night as they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 in the home opener at BB&T Center. Among the former players from the 1993-94 Panthers team in attendance tonight were Brian Skrudland, Bill Lindsay, Gord Murphy and Rob Niedermeyer. The Panthers snapped their three-game losing streak while the Penguins lost for the first time this season.
    Florida(2-3-0) took the lead just 1:55 into the game when Brad Boyes scored his third goal of the season as he snapped a shot from the right circle by Pens goalie Jeff Zatkoff, who was making his first NHL start. Tomas Fleischmann stole the puck from Sidney Crosby at the top of the Pittsburgh zone and sent a lead pass to Boyes on the right side. It was the first lead the Cats had in a game since their road opener in Dallas.
    Pittsburgh(3-1-0) responded back to tied the game 1-1 at 5:38 of the first period. Marcel Goc was stripped of the puck at his own blue line by Beau Bennett which set up a 2-on-1 break on net. Bennett passed across to Evgeni Malkin and he ripped a snap shot from the inner left circle by Cats goalie Jacob Markstrom.
    The Panthers, who won their fourth straight home opener, regained the lead at 2-1 at 9:10 of the first. Shawn Matthias brought the puck into the left corner and passed it to Scott Gomez behind the Penguins net. Kris Versteeg got the pass from him at the right face-off circle dot and blasted a one-timer for his first goal of the year.
    Once again the Penguins tied it up at 2-2 with 3:11 left in the first period as Craig Adams poked in a shot inside the crease area after Tanner Glass tried to make a wraparound shot coming out from behind the Panthers cage.
    The Cats capitalized on two Pittsburgh penalties midway through the second period to make it 4-2. On a 5-on-3 power play, Jonathan Huberdeau batted in a puck by the goal mouth at 7:08 after Versteeg wristed a shot from the low right circle off Zatkoff and the right post. They would follow with another goal with the man advantage 66 seconds later as Aleksander Barkov picked up his second career goal as he backhanded a pass from the side of the net that bounced off Paul Martin's right leg and into the Penguins cage.
    The Pens cut the margin to 4-3 as Crosby dropped a pass from the low left circle to Pascal Dupuis and he buried in a wrist shot at 12:13.
    Tomas Fleischmann scored his first goal of the season at 6:27 of the third period and extended the Panthers lead to 5-3. Barkov knocked a loose puck in the neutral zone ahead to Fleischmann across the Penguins line and he took two straight shots before the puck went into the net.
    Florida wrapped things up one second after a Crosby interference penalty ended with 33.8 seconds to go as Boyes got his second goal of the game when he put the puck into the net from the left of the crease after a cross-ice pass by Barkov.
    Markstrom upped his record to 1-1-0 as he made 36 saves on 39 Penguins shots while Zatkoff took the loss in his NHL debut as he stopped 24 shots. The Cats went 2-for-4 on the power play and the Pens were 0-for-3.