Avalanche Blitz Panthers

     The Florida Panthers made a one-game stop in Sunrise during their seven-game stretch on Friday night. They fell to the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 at the BB&T Center. The Cats return to the road for four consecutive games beginning on Sunday against Detroit.
     The Avalanche struck first just 1:34 into the contest to get up 1-0. Matt Duchene circled around the Panthers cage and put a backhand in front for Ryan O'Reilly. His first shot from the right of the crease sailed wide and bounced off the back wall to him for a second-chance shot for the tally. It was his 19th goal of the campaign.
     Colorado(32-13-5) extended their lead to 2-0 with 3:47 left in the first. Gabriel Landeskog stopped a clearing pass on the left-wing wall and sent a pass toward the low slot. Paul Stastny received it, spinned around and put a backhand shot by Tim Thomas for his 14th goal.
     The Avs moved it up to three-goal gap with seven minutes remaining in the second period. Duchene sent the puck from the left wing to O'Reilly at the end wall. He went behind the net and passed out in front to Jamie McGinn for a goal from the top crease. His brother Ty from the Philadelphia Flyers scored his first NHL goal against the Cats in the same arena last season.
     The shutout was broken by Florida(20-24-7) with 14:42 remaining in the third period. Tomas Fleischmann spun off his defender and backhanded a pass from behing the Avs net. Scottie Upshall lifted the puck from the edge of the blue paint as it rolled around the right shoulder of Semyon Varlamov for his eighth goal this season. It also was the 100th NHL goal in his career.
     The Panthers pulled their goalie with two minutes left and it paid off. Tom Gilbert blasted a slapshot from the right point that was deflected off the skate of Upshall in the crease area with 1:43 to go and made it 3-2.
     Varlamov improved to 25-9-5 as he stopped 34 shots while Thomas dropped to 13-14-3 as he made 22 saves. Neither team converted on the power play as they both went 0-for-2. The Avalanche increased their record to 26-1-3 scoring first, 20-1-1 leading after one period and 27-0-2 leading after two periods.