Panthers Crush Devils

     The Florida Panthers stopped the New Jersey Devils 5-1 on Thursday night at Prudential Center. The Panthers, who have won three of their last four games, played in Newark just ten days ago and lost. Florida has outscored their opponents by eight goals in the last two games.
     Jussi Jokinen connected with a power-play goal midway through the first period. Brandon Pirri and Vincent Trocheck were credited on the assists. Dmitry Kulikov extended the Floirda lead as he added his first goal of the season with exactly eight minutes left in the frame.
     In the second period, the Panthers continued to role as Pirri made it a three-goal margin on the Panthers ninth shot of the contest. Logan Shaw collected his first NHL assist on the play. Pirri dropped a pass to Shaw for a one-time shot from the top right circle. It bounced off traffic in front of him and Pirri snapped a shot from the low right circle.
     Florida capitalized after the Devils iced the puck seven minutes into the third period as Reilly Smith scored from the top of the crease for his tenth goal of the season. He has four games in his last five games and four goals in his last nine road games. Jokinen passed from the right point to Trocheck to the right side of the crease. His backhand shot was saved by Cory Schneider, but Smith pounced on the rebound from close range.
     New Jersey broke the shutout by Al Montoya on a power-play goal with over six minutes remaining in the third. Kyle Palmieri blistered a one-time slapshot from the top left circle off the body of Sergey Kalinan after a feed on top by David Schlemko.
     Logan Shaw slapped in a goal from the New Jersey blue line into an empty net after the Devils pulled their goalie for an extra attacker at the five-minute mark.