Panthers Fly By Jets

     The Florida Panthers completed a five-game homestand with a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets at BB&T Center on Thursday night. The Cats, who snapped a three-game losing streak, finished their recent stay in Sunrise at 2-3-0 and will play this weekend in the Midwest at Detroit and Chicago.
     Winnipeg(13-13-4), currently on a season-high six-game road trip, got off to a good start just 5:27 into the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Blake Wheeler took a right-wing slapshot on net, Bryan Little swept the rebound slightly to his left and Andrew Ladd snapped a shot into the cage from the edge of the crease.
     The game was evened by Florida(8-16-5) at 14:02 when they took advantage of a turnover at center ice. Marcel Goc brought the puck back into the Jets zone and passed right to Tomas Fleischmann. He dropped it off to Erik Gudbranson and he blasted a slapshot from the top right circle by Ondrej Pavelec. Tim Thomas made his 11,000th career save late in the first period.
     Dylan Olsen followed with his first NHL goal in his career at 3:31 of the second period for a Panthers 2-1 lead. The Cats got a 3-on-2 odd-man rush when Tobias Enstrom was knocked down behind their own cage. Scottie Upshall skated with the puck down the right side into the Jets zone, fed it to the slot area where Olsen put in a snap shot. Upshall was credited with his 100th career assist on the play and now has a five-game point streak.
     Tomas Fleischmann got out of his goal slump with 2:01 left in the second as he scored on a wrist shot on the edge of the crease following a right-wing shot by Mike Weaver. Florida went into the third period with the lead for just the fourth time this season. They had a 3-0-0 mark prior to this game.
     The Panthers had just finished their first power play and extended their lead to 4-1 at 5:37 of the third period. Tom Gilbert sent a slap pass to Upshall in the high slot and his shot hit the back wall. Nick Bjudstad got the puck and stuffed in a wraparound shot.
     Olli Jokinen would burn his former team with 7:15 to go and closed the gap to 4-2. Devin Setoguchi picked up a loose puck behind the Panthers net and sent a backhand pass to the low slot where Jokinen scored.
     Jimmy Hayes, the player who now wears Jokinen's number 12 jersey with Florida, scored on a breakaway as he switched to the backhand with 2:44 remaining.
     Thomas improved to 7-10-1 as he stopped 29 of 31 shots. Pavelec dropped down to 10-11-3 as he made 21 saves. There were only three power plays in this game as Florida was 0-for-2 and Winnipeg was 0-for-1.