Oilers Shock Panthers

     The Florida Panthers played the second game of a two-week, five-game homestand and fell to the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday night at BB&T Center. The Panthers were unable to win their first home game against the Oilers since 2002. The Oilers, who stopped a 14-game losing streak on the road, have now won six straight games in Sunrise.
     There was no scoring until the second period when Edmonton(11-26-9) broke the tie at 3:25. After Erik Gudbranson lost the puck at the Oilers blue line, Matt Fraser sent a lead pass to Jordan Eberle at center ice. He went in alone on a breakaway and put the puck over the left glove of Roberto Luongo.
     It did not take long for Florida(20-13-10) to tie it up as they did it at 5:41. Jussi Jokinen had the puck on the left point and passed it across to Gudbranson on the right point where he took a wrist shot that sailed over the left shoulder of Victor Fasth. It  was his second goal this season and his first goal in 38 games.
     The Cats took the lead with 5:31 left in the second. Dmitry Kulikov soft shot was stopped by Aleksander Barkov in the right circle and turned around and fired a shot off the left post. Jonathan Huberdeau followed up with a goal from the left edge of the blue paint.
     In the third period, the Panthers got their first power play of the game and they gave up a shorthanded goal at 6:32. A clearing pass by Aaron Ekblad was picked up by Mark Fayne in the neutral zone and he brought it into the Panthers zone. He spotted Boyd Gordon ahead of him in the high slot who then connected with Matt Hendricks streaking down the middle and he shot the puck by Luongo's blocker.
     Edmonton got the only tally during the shootout as they scored during the first round. Nail Yakupov was called upon to take his first shootout attempt of the season and he scored to the stick side.