One Step Closer
In the close playoff race, which has already began in earnest, every point counts and the Florida Panthers picked up a tricky one yesterday. Having had several days off the Cats came off to a decent start, but it was the visitors from Philadelphia that had the greatest passion in front of the net and got a somewhat fortuitous 2-0 lead, going in to the first interval.
If the Panthers had looked a bit pale towards the end of that first period, in the second they flushed forward in full force. For a long time it looked like the efforts might not be rewarded as the Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymäki was red-hot in front of the net; not letting anything pass him by or giving up any spoils to pounce on. The pressure did pay off however and Philadelphia was taking penalty after penalty in trying to fend off the circling Cats. Florida finally cracked the ‘Finnish wall’ and McCabe and Bouwmeester both got on the scoreboard to tie the game at 2.
Going in to the third period the game was up for the grabbing and both teams surged back and forth in search of that winning goal. But neither the 20 minutes remaining nor the 5 minutes of 4 on 4 Overtime could create a winner. Both had their chances, but none were better than the two late chances in the game by Florida’s Ville Peltonen (just wide) and David Booth (hitting the post). Spurning these quality chances would come back to bite the Panthers as they lost the shootout to the visitors. Goalie Antero Niittymäki again came to haunt the home shooters by stopping all three Florida efforts. Simon Gagne of the Flyers scored the only goal and visitors could return to Philadelphia with two somewhat fortunate points.
Conversely one point is not all that bad for the Panthers either. It takes us to the same amount of points as rivals Carolina, with two games in hand, and closes some of that gap to Buffalo. Having still games in hand – on all our playoff adversaries – there is a grand window of opportunity for the Cats opening up, as the team now travels across the state to tackle a thorny Tampa Bay side. A win may not strictly speaking be absolutely critical, but would be oh so sweet and significant for our playoff hopes.
They did overall take a slight dent yesterday, as fellow playoff hopefuls Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils picked up full points; against Columbus Blue Jackets (2-1 to the Devils) and Anaheim Ducks (3-1 to the Penguins) respectively. But, with our advantage in games left to play, it really is all up to the Panthers to keep taking points in (almost) every game and the playoffs are within our reach. Florida’s Hockey fate is still firmly in our own hands, and so, this game is in that sense another step closer to those elusive Stanley Cup playoffs.
Today another piece can be added to those aspirations by winning against Tampa Bay Lightning. We have some payback to extort from them – after losing the last two contests…
