Florida Panthers End Season

     The Florida Panthers concluded their 20th anniversary season with a 3-2 defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night at BB&T Center. The Panthers, who lost 10 of their last 13 games, finished with a record of 29-45-8. The Blue Jackets ended up as the top wild card in Eastern Conference with the victory and will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs.
     In the first period, Columbus(43-32-7) scored on their first shot of the game just 47 seconds into the game. Matt Calvert made a lead pass to Brandon Dubinsky in the left circle, he put a cross-ice pass which was redirected by Cam Atkinson in the crease area. The Blue Jackets started out with a 16-3 shot advantage in the first ten minutes of the first period.
     After Panthers captain Ed Jovanovski received a five-minute elbowing penalty and a game misconduct, the Cats pulled off a shorthanded goal by Vincent Trocheck. He stole the puck from Atkinson at the Panthers line and carried it down the middle of the ice on a breakaway. His initial shot from the low crease was saved, but Trocheck poked in the rebound between the pads of Sergei Bobrovsky to tie it with 1:01 remaining in the first.
     Florida took their first lead early in the second period at 6:35. A right-angle pass by Brandon Pirri was received by Jimmy Hayes at the top right circle and he released a wrist shot from the right-circle dot for his 11th goal.
     A power-play goal by the Blue Jackets with five second left in the man advantage would even it 2-2 at 10:14. Ryan Johansen was in the left circle when he connected a pass to Mark Letestu at the top right circle. His slapshot got by Roberto Luongo as there was traffic in the blue paint.
     The Blue Jackets would get the eventual game-winning goal from Johansen at 5:58 on the power play. James Wisniewski fed a cross-ice pass from the right point to Johansen in the low left circle for a one-time slapshot.
     Luongo had his season record fall to 25-23-7 as he stopped 35 of 38 shots while Bobrovsky made 33 saves and improved to 32-20-5. The Panthers, who finished the season with the worst power play and penalty killing in the NHL, were 0-for-4 with the man advantage and Columbus was successful on two of five occasions.