Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Rangers Sweep Panthers

     The last game of 2013 was played on Tuesday as the Florida Panthers fell to  the New York Rangers 2-1 in a shootout at BB&T Center. The Cats, are 1-2-1 on their current five-game homestand and host the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. The Blueshirts swept the three-game season series and have won four of their last five games.
     Neither team scored until the second period. Florida(15-20-6) capitalized on a turnover by Dan Girardi behind his own cage. Aleksander Barkov intercepted a pass and put it in front to Brad Boyes. He faked a forehand shot and shoved a backhand shot between the legs of Henrik Lundqvist for a Panthers 1-0 lead. It was the tenth goal this season for Boyes and Barkov extended his point streak to four games. Florida entered this game with a 7-0-0 record when they had the lead after two periods.
     New York(20-19-2)waited until almost 58 minutes into the game to get their first goal. The Rangers had the Panthers bottled in their own end when Derek Stepan send the puck from behind the Cats net to Girardi at the top left circle. He fired a high wrist shot by Tim Thomas to tie the game with 2:10 left in the third period.
     There was no scoring in overtime as the contest went to a shootout. Both teams missed their first two attempts as Mats Zuccarello and Stepan missed for New York along with Barkov and Huberdeau for Florida. Brad Richards scored on the Rangers third attempt to give them the victory.     
     Thomas, who played in his 400th NHL game, made 29 saves and dropped his record to 9-10-2. Lundqvist raised his mark to 12-15-2 as he stopped 21 shots. Neither team scored on the power play as the Cats were 0-for-4 while the Blueshirts were 0-for-3.

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