Avalanche Storm By Panthers

     The Florida Panthers lost to the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 at BB&T Center on Thursday night. It was the seventh game of an eight-game home stand for the Panthers who have a 3-3-1 record during that stretch. The Avalanche won for the seventh time in their last eight road games.
     Colorado(17-7-5) got the lead first with 9:20 left in the first period. Nathan McKinnon made a pass from the left wing to the blue line. Patrik Nemeth made a wrist shot from the top of the zone and it grazed off Mikko Rantanen in the low slot and past Roberto Luongo. It was the 12th goal this season by Rantanen.
     Florida(11-11-5) evened up the contest with 2:07 remaining in the first. Borgan Kiselevich passed the puck back-and-forth with MacKenzie Weegar at the blue line. Kiselevich snapped a shot from the left point which was deflected in by Colton Sceviour in the slot area.
     The Avs got a shorthanded goal at 5:44 of the second period. Carl Soderberg went through the neutral zone and stopped in the high slot. His snap shot rolled off the left arm of Luongo and into the Cats cage.
     The Panthers still were able to score a power-play goal at the 6:19 mark. Jared McCann sent a diagonal pass from the right-circle dot to the bottom left circle and Aaron Ekblad scored his sixth goal of the year on a wrist shot by Phillipp Grubauer.
     In the third period, Florida could not clear their own zone during a long shift and the Avalanche took advantage of it. J.T. Compher stopped the puck at the right point and his snap shot was redirected by Gabriel Landeskog at the edge of the right circle with 13:38 left.
     Colorado added another tally 43 seconds later to make it 4-2.  Colin Wilson dropped the puck from the low left circle and Soderberg fired a slapshot for his second goal of the contest and 11th goal of the campaign. The Avs picked up an empty-net goal by Landeskog with 1:34 left for a three-goal margin.