Panthers Overcome Senators

     The Florida Panthers avoided elimination from the playoff race on Tuesday night with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Ottawa Senators at BB&T Center. The Panthers avoided not being in the postseason for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.
     In the second period, Mark Stone scored his second career NHL goal at 11:34 for Ottawa(29-29-14). He passed the puck to Eric Karlsson in the right circle and he returned a cross-ice pass to him for a snap shot from the left circle.
     The Sens made it 2-0 at 16:11 on the power play when Patrick Wiercioch blasted a slapshot from the left point and was deflected in by Clarke MacArthur while inside the left circle for his 22nd goal.
     The Panthers mounted a comeback with two goals in a 23 seconds to tie the game 2-2. Brian Campbell fed the puck from the right corner to Sean Bergenheim in the right circle and he scored on a wrist shot with 2:28 left in the second for his 15th goal this season.
     Florida(27-38-8) evened the contest on a two-on-one breakaway. Vincent Trocheck pulled off a give-and-go with Scottie Upshall in the offensive zone and connected with his third career NHL goal with 2:05 remaining.
     It would go into a shootout to decide the winner. Kyle Turris converted on the first shootout attempt for Ottawa with a snap shot over the blocker of Roberto Luongo. Florida would score on their only two attempts during the shootout. Trocheck dazzled with a double fake on Robin Lehrer and finished with a forehand shot. It was followed by Brandon Pirri as he went five-hole between the legs with a wrist shot.
     Both goalies were the main players of the game. Luongo kept his team in the game with 37 saves and he moved his record to 23-20-7. Lehner made 39 stops for the Senators and dropped to 8-15-6 this season. The Cats went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Sens were 1-for-2.