Zednik Stamps His Seal on the Islanders
Richard Zednik may not have scored many goals this season, but what he’s lacked in quantity – he sure makes up for with quality. It seems he has a special eye for the spectacular, highlight reel, kind of goal. Also, more importantly, his goals have tended to be the proverbial back-breaker of opposing teams; scoring at opportune moments when the Panthers have been under mounting pressure.
Today he scored the winning goal in a fashion that left spectators stupendously gawking with incredulity. It is not every day you see a player jump over an opponent and then score whilst still airborne. And yes, we’re still talking about Hockey here – not Basketball!
(If you haven’t yet seen this pearl of a goal – watch it here on the NHL Network)
However, before this fabulous goal punctuated a very important win and two points for the Panthers, it was the Florida defense that yet again showed the way with a pair of goals in the first period. Slapshots from Jay Bouwmeester and Karlis Skrastins gave the Cats a nice two goal cushion when entering the second period. Our defense is now the leading goalscoring ‘D’ in the entire league, tallying an impressive 36 goals all-in-all.
The first period perhaps lulled the home team into a sustained catnap in the mid period; in which Florida collected 8 minutes to kill on the man-disadvantage. The Islanders were happy to cash in from the Panthers poor discipline and got two power-play goals from the man-advantage. Sandwiched between these goals was the magical high-flying Zednik game winner.
Richard flipped the puck past a defender, advanced down the right wing – then cut in – jumped over another sliding defender and slid the puck under the goalie in one motion whilst still in the air. Pure inspiration! The Panthers then held on in the third period with relative comfort to claim the points.
Head Coach Peter DeBoer said after the game about Zednik: “There’s a guy…I haven’t given enough credit to lately. He’s really battling hard. He’s doing a lot of the little things well away from the puck and he’s starting to get rewarded at the net, too. That’s the kind of contributions we need.” [Quote from the Panthers website]
Indeed, those kinds of contributions anyone would be delighted to get! Yet, this wasn’t necessarily a very pretty match and the Panthers had to work hard and get some important breaks to win against, what has become, a bogey team for the Cats this season.
In fact all Florida players seemed to be playing diligent Hockey on the night. Special mentioning goes out to McCabe (2 assists), goalscorers Bouwmeester & Skrastins, assisters Horton & Weiss, rock-solid Campbell & Cullimore – and of course – Richard Zednik.
As mentioned already, it was an important two points as we head in to a very tough stretch for the Panthers; starting on Saturday away against a red-hot Green & Ovechkin duo – and the rest of the Capitals. Carolina also put some pressure on the Cats by shocking the Sharks and taking two points with them from their visit in San Jose.
It will be a rough ride down the playoff road for Florida, but the Islanders speed bump was at least grinded down yesterday, and we are now – one step closer.
I thought this game was a roller coaster ride!! The first period the Cats outplayed the opponents with beautiful play, then came the second, which was a shocking bit of a beating, and then the third … I can’t even find a word to describe it! But a deserved win and good confidence booster for the tough road ahead for sure!
And yeah … what a pretty goal by Zednik for sure! I’m glad the coach is giving him some credit now. Afterall, the guy started his season just coming out of very traumatic event – even I am still traumatized by it!! LOL