Roblogg’s Panthers Portal

Florida Panthers vs. Colorado Avalanche, 6-5 SO. It was a wild game at the Bank Atlantic Center with 10 goals, a Stephen Weiss hattrick, and a shootout.

It was a welcome home to South Florida for Colorado's new No.1 netminder Craig Anderson. He was put to the test as the Panthers threw some 44 pucks on goal; outshooting an opponent believe it or not... Here Andy makes a nice pad save on a Stephen Reinprecht attempt at goal.

Stephen Weiss lights the lamp - for the second occasion on the night - making it 2-0 to the Cats in the opening period.

A familiar sight this particular night: Stephen Weiss nets another goal to complete his hattrick before the mid-way point of the second period; restoring the Cats' two-goal lead to 3-1.

Matt Duchene was the sparkling starlet that kept the Avs in this game despite having their opportunities limited by a strong looking Panthers team. This is his first of two goals as Duchene pokes the puck home from close range, closing the gap to 2-3.

The gung-ho game continued in the third period with the visitors making an astonishing comeback in the last minute. Two 6-on-5 goals tied the game with seconds to spare as the Cats again relinquished a lead in the final minutes. Keith Ballard would in the ensuing overtime challenge and tumble into Colorado's goalie Anderson, who was subsequently forced to leave the game. The collision was unintentional, but nonetheless, Ballard has now knocked out both his goalie teammates from last season... The Avs' Adam Foote (to the left in this picture from a situation earlier in the game) took exeption and jumped Ballard - when the latter was sprawling on his back - in a cowardly manner and beat the defenseless Keith with several sucker punches.

The cold Peter Budaj was thrust into the shootout after Andy's injury, but you wouldn't have known it... Here he makes an amazing stick-trick to deny Rostislav Olesz on the third Panthers shot of the shootout.

Peter Budaj makes another penalty save with his pad, his fourth save in the shootout, to deny Nathan Horton the opportunity to win the game. Fortunately Scott Clemmensen for the Panthers was equally impressive and denied all five attempts from the Avalanche players.

All well that ends well. Stephen Weiss scores the only goal of the shootout, on a total ten attempts, to win the extra point for Florida - in a thrilling contest at the Bank Atlantic Center.