Cats Take Game One

Florida -- Round two of the NsHL Playoffs began tonight with a rough-n-tumble game between Florida and Philadelphia. The Cats clawed their way to a hard-earned 2-1 victory to take a 1-0 series advantage.

The first period was evenly played but the Flyers showed they came to play a hard-nosed banging and crashing game. Gilbert Brule took the first of three charging penalties on the night for the Flyers.

Cats Coach Keenan: "They were running our guys all night. One thing is for sure, they found out in a hurry we can play that game too."

The second period saw the Cats take charge. Paul Ranger scored his first point of the post season when his point blast found the back of the net early in the second frame. Evgeni Malkin then fired a one-timer past Flyers goalie Evgeni Nabokov to make it two-zip.

During the second period, Panthers top scoring pivot, Jason Spezza left with an upper-body injury. Spezza did not return to the game and had a quick and terse "no comment" when asked if he would play in game two.

The third period had an edge to it from the outset. 36 minutes in penalties were called and the Panthers lost another Superstar to injury. Malkin left the game after a dirty hit from Flyers defender Chris Phillips. Malkin was taken to a local hospital for observation. Phillips received a two minute penalty, a ten minute misconduct and was ejected from the contest.

When hockey was being played it was all Panthers in the frame. But, Nabakov would keep his team in the game . The Flyers would rally thanks to a Ruslan Fedotenko goal to cut the lead in half. But the Southern Cats kept their advantage and won game one.

Game Notes: Nathan Horton was back in the line-up after missing game 4 and 5 of the first round series versus New Jersey. Horton was clearly not his normal self posting no hits and a minus-1.

Patrick Lalime made his 4th straight start in goal and stopped 17 of 18 shots to earn the win.

Paul Ranger had 5 shots on goal including one goal after being held pointless by the Devils. Ed Jovanovski was a massive star in game one. He logged 25 minutes was a plus-2, fired 3 shots and 6 hits plus he took a penalty and added a helper on Rangers goal.