Cats cursed by Tjutin-khamun

Florida -- With the Florida Panthers up 2-0 in the NsHL Cup Finals the scene shifted to their home in Sunrise Florida.

Fedor Tjutin wrist shot found the back of the net and the Vancouver Canucks found themselves back in the series.

Tjutin scored twice and Doug Weight and Milan Hejduk each added a goal as the Canucks beat the Panthers 4-3 to take game three of the NsHL Final.

Florida still leads the best-of-seven series 2-1, winning 4-1 and 5-2 in the first two games.

The Canucks were full value for the win tonight as they came back from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits.

"Nobody quit," Doug Weight said. "Everybody was confident and it showed tonight. We played a solid road game tonight."

Game notes: The Cup Final is a definite road show with the road team winning all three games ...... Evgeni Malkin and Justin Williams scored in game three and have scored in back-to-back games ....... Nathan Norton added an assist and now leads the Panthers with 6 points in the series ..... the power-play was terrific in game three ..... the Canucks were a perfect one-for-one and the Panthers were 2 for 3 ...... the Panthers suffered another injury in game three when Antti Miettinen left the game with bruised shoulder and he will not play in game four ....... Patrick Eaves will get his first taste of action in the Cup Final.

Florida

EVEN STRENGTH

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Jason Spezza          Antti Miettinen       Evgeni Malkin         Sergei Zubov          Ivan Majesky
2  Marc Savard           Kyle Calder           Juraj Kolnik          Ed Jovanovski         Paul Ranger
3  Mike Sillinger        Justin Williams       Nathan Horton         Jason York            Branislav Mezei
4  Alyn Mccauley         Jay Pandolfo          Evgeni Malkin         Jason Strudwick       Ed Jovanovski


POWER PLAY

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Marc Savard           Kyle Calder           Evgeni Malkin         Sergei Zubov          Ed Jovanovski
2  Mike Sillinger        Justin Williams       Nathan Horton         Ivan Majesky          Paul Ranger


PENALTY KILL

    CENTER                WINGER                DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Alyn Mccauley         Jay Pandolfo          Sergei Zubov          Ivan Majesky
2  Mike Sillinger        Kyle Calder           Paul Ranger           Ed Jovanovski


STARTING GOALIE

  Patrick Lalime


SCRATCHES

  Patrick Eaves (Healthy)
  Joel Bouchard (Healthy)
  Petr Taticek (Healthy)

Vancouver

EVEN STRENGTH

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Brendan Morrison      Fredrik Modin         Milan Hejduk          Paul Martin           Martin Skoula
2  Doug Weight           Brenden Morrow        Shane Doan            Brad Stuart           Fedor Tjutin
3  Henrik Sedin          Daniel Sedin          Kirk Maltby           Mathieu Dandenault    Daniel Mcgillis
4  Doug Weight           Brenden Morrow        Milan Hejduk          Brad Stuart           Martin Skoula


POWER PLAY

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Brendan Morrison      Fredrik Modin         Milan Hejduk          Paul Martin           Brad Stuart
2  Doug Weight           Brenden Morrow        Shane Doan            Martin Skoula         Fedor Tjutin


PENALTY KILL

    CENTER                WINGER                DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Jason Arnott          Kirk Maltby           Martin Skoula         Fedor Tjutin
2  Henrik Sedin          Chuck Kobasew         Paul Martin           Daniel Mcgillis


STARTING GOALIE

  Rick DiPietro


SCRATCHES

  Ron Hainsey (Healthy)
  Brooks Orpik (Healthy)
  Trevor Letowski (Healthy)

31 seconds of horror

Vancouver -- Game two of the NsHL Final was decided in a span of 31 seconds. The Florida Panthers won game two 5-2 and now have a two nothing advantage in the series.

The home crowd was stunned and watched in horror as the visitors scored three goals in the span of 31 seconds in the first period.

Jason York opened the scoring when his flutterball got past Canucks back-up goalie Chris Osgood. Just 19 seconds later Justin Williams got past the defense and beat Osgood glove side to make it 2-0. 12 seconds later Sergei Zubov long pass connected to Evgeni Malkin and from the top of the left circle he blasted a shot passed Osgood.

31 seconds and three goals and the Panthers were off to the races. The crowd was fit to be tied.

"I kept counting the Canucks players, it seemed we were playing without 5 guys," said Canucks fan Dennis Kearns. "What the &$#! happened?"

The visiting Panthers kept up the pace. Juraj Kolnik scored to make it 4-0 and the home crowd turned on Osgood. The crowd gave him the bronx cheer from that point on. After Paul Martin made 4-1 the Panthers went in for the kill. Zubov and Jason Spezza set up their third goal of the night this one converted by Antti Miettinen. This goal spelled the end of Osgood's night.

The Southern cats held the advantage of play the rest of the way and cruised to a 5-2 win.

Rick Dipietro played well to cement his status as the Canucks number one. He will obviously play the rest of the series healthy or not.

Game notes: The game turned out to be a battle of back-ups as Coach Keenan suprised most by starting Manny Fernandez over Patrick Lalime ...... The Canucks camp said Dipietro is battling flu type symptoms ...... when the media asked Keenan about the health of Lalime the coach answered "flu, sure that sounds like what he has" ........ Fernandez left the game in the second period holding his elbow ...... Keenan said he was day-to-day with an upper body injury ...... Ed Jovanovski was a physical force tonight leading all players with 7 hits.

Horton hears a who ... scores too!

Vancouver -- Nathan Horton scored twice and Patrick Lalime made 26 saves as the Florida Panthers took Game 1 of the NsHL Cup Final on Saturday night 4-1 over the Vancouver Canucks .

Ed Jovanovski opened the scoring early in the second period with a quick snapshot past Canucks goalie Rick Dipietro.

Horton then wheeled down the wing and fired a wrist shot through the pads of Dipetro. Vancouver sniper, Milan Hejduk blasted a one-timer past Lalime to make the score 2-1 for the Panthers as they took the second break.

Horton and Mike Sillinger scored late in the third to pad the lead.

"Horton had 11 points heading into the Final," explained Coach Keenan. "With only two goals in the post season he's been finding other ways to help us. Tonight he looked like the great power forward that we all think he can be."

The Canucks were flying in the opening ten minutes of the game. They clearly took control early and Lalime was called upon to make some key saves in the first frame.

"We gave up some chances," said Sillinger. "Patty was strong in the nets. He's been terrific for us."

Once the Panthers got through the first period and the strong start of the Canucks. They settled down and played a great game in the final two periods to earn the victory. The early second period goal was a key and then scoring on a power play soon after was enough to quiet the crowd and take much of the steam out of the Canucks attack.

Game notes: Jovanovski's first period goal was his first of the post-season ..... Jovocop led all skaters with 25 minutes of ice-time ...... both teams rolled over four lines and received some good quality minutes from the third and fourth lines ..... Florida received three goals from their third line and the fourth line scored the only goal for the Canucks ...... Lalime will not skate today as he is battling fatigue ...... he has been listed as a game-time decision for Game 2.

Vancouver

EVEN STRENGTH

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Brendan Morrison      Fredrik Modin         Milan Hejduk          Paul Martin           Martin Skoula
2  Doug Weight           Brenden Morrow        Shane Doan            Brad Stuart           Fedor Tjutin
3  Jason Arnott          Daniel Sedin          Kirk Maltby           Ron Hainsey           Daniel Mcgillis
4  Henrik Sedin          Chuck Kobasew         Milan Hejduk          Brad Stuart           Mathieu Dandenault


POWER PLAY

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Brendan Morrison      Fredrik Modin         Milan Hejduk          Paul Martin           Brad Stuart
2  Doug Weight           Brenden Morrow        Shane Doan            Martin Skoula         Fedor Tjutin


PENALTY KILL

    CENTER                WINGER                DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Jason Arnott          Kirk Maltby           Martin Skoula         Fedor Tjutin
2  Henrik Sedin          Chuck Kobasew         Paul Martin           Daniel Mcgillis


STARTING GOALIE

Rick DiPietro


SCRATCHES

Brooks Orpik (Healthy)
Valtteri Filppula (Healthy)
Trevor Letowski (Healthy)

Florida

EVEN STRENGTH

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Jason Spezza          Antti Miettinen       Evgeni Malkin         Sergei Zubov          Ivan Majesky
2  Marc Savard           Kyle Calder           Juraj Kolnik          Ed Jovanovski         Paul Ranger
3  Mike Sillinger        Justin Williams       Nathan Horton         Jason York            Branislav Mezei
4  Alyn Mccauley         Jay Pandolfo          Evgeni Malkin         Jason Strudwick       Ed Jovanovski


POWER PLAY

    CENTER                LEFT WING             RIGHT WING            DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Marc Savard           Kyle Calder           Evgeni Malkin         Sergei Zubov          Ed Jovanovski
2  Mike Sillinger        Justin Williams       Nathan Horton         Ivan Majesky          Paul Ranger


PENALTY KILL

    CENTER                WINGER                DEFENCE               DEFENCE
1  Alyn Mccauley         Jay Pandolfo          Sergei Zubov          Ivan Majesky
2  Mike Sillinger        Kyle Calder           Paul Ranger           Ed Jovanovski


STARTING GOALIE

 Patrick Lalime


SCRATCHES

 Patrick Eaves (Healthy)
 Joel Bouchard (Healthy)
 Petr Taticek (Healthy)

Cats feel like dogs.

Vancouver -- As the NsHL Cup Final gets ready to begin later today the Florida Panthers are hoping to overcome the odds and win one more series.

Coach Keenan held his first press conference yesterday and told the media his team is a huge underdog. "The Canucks have a great team," explained Keenan. "They are everyone's choice. They are solid down the middle and we have always thought that was one of our strengths too."

The coach was quick with the cliche to the media. According to Keenan its the Panthers against the rest of the world. He said the Cats have to take it one game at a time. He was also very kind to Patrick Lalime saying "Our goalie has really bailed us out."

With the cliches out of the way he complained that his GM is jinxing his team and he even took a few shots at his players for carrying the trophy around Scotiabank Place last week. "I guess we should have explained to these guys what you do with the trophy," said Keenan. "Don't touch it!!"

Panthers players Mike Sillinger and Jay Pandolfo skated around the Ottawa rink with the trophy and then rushed it into the dressing room where it was hoisted by all the players.

"This team is killing me," said Keenan. "You know i had a full head of hair last week. Now its gone."

Game notes: The Panthers head into the Final as healthy as can be expected at this time of year. Lalime has recovered from the injury which forced him out of game four against the Sens. Keenan has confirmed Lalime will start the opener ..... a few line-up changes are planned by the Panthers but Keenan was tight lipped about what that could mean ...... one switch in practice had Marc Savard skating with wingers Kyle Calder and Juraj Kolnik ........ secondary scoring will need to continue if the Southern Cats have a chance of beating the Canucks ....... Nathan Horton, Kolnik, Calder, Savard and Justin Williams will all need to be at their best in the NsHL Final.

Dream season rolls on, NsHL Cup is up next.

Florida -- For the Florida Panthers its been a spring of firsts. The played their first NsHL playoff game. Then they took out the New Jersey Devils to win their first playoff series. After beating the Philadelphia Flyers they had a chance to play against the Ottawa Senators.

The Sens series brought two more firsts to the franchise. The 4-0 series sweep was the first playoff sweep for the Southern Cats. But more importantly, the win meant the team had captured its first Eastern Conference Championship. Which leads to another first, a birth in the NsHL Cup. Whats next?

The Panthers started the playoffs with only two players with Cup rings. Jason York had played on a Cup winning team in New Jersey. While Alyn McCauley was a "black ace" for the San Jose Sharks in their Championship run.

Not exactly a huge amount of playoff savvy in the Panthers dressing room. But the Cats have been full value for their playoff victories.

Series One v. New Jersey:

The Panthers wore down the Devils. They battled hard every game and took over the series with game 3 and 4 wins in the swamp. The Devils just seemed to wilt late in the series.

Cats top players:

Jason Spezza 11 points
Evgeni Malkin 6 points

The top line of Spezza, Malkin and Miettinen was put together during this series and it paid off big for all three. Another big story was the play of Juraj Kolnik who had two goals in the series, both game winners. The defense was led by the great play at both ends from Sergei Zubov. Let's not forget the veteran York. The light scoring dman had two goals in the series, one a game winner.

Series Two v. Philadelphia:

The toughest series for the Panthers. They will look back at this series and say they didn't win but they survived. Four one-goal decisions in this series shows how tight it was. Injuries hurt the Panthers as they couldn't ice their full squad. A 4-0 shutout win in Philadelphia was the highlight and let everyone know the Cats were for real.

Cats top players:

Nathan Horton 7 points
Petr Taticek 7 points
Justin Williams 7 points

With all the injuries (and the Marc Savard suspension) the Panthers had to make some changes to their front lines. One change was the call-up of Petr Taticek. His play with Horton and Williams was one of the keys to their play in this series. Williams scored five goals in the six game series. Paul Ranger had a big offensive series from the blue line and Kolnik continued to score big goals. Ed Jovanovski had a good series and is starting to become the dominant Panthers dman. Laying out big hits, logging lots of ice-time and chipping in on offense too.

Series Three v. Ottawa:

The series sweep of the Sens was about the Cats keeping the pedal to the medal. But it was also about the poor play of Ottawa.

Cats top players:

Mike Sillinger 7 points
Evgeni Malkin 6 points
Jason Spezza 6 points

The cats now won three series with a different players leading the scoring in all three. Sillinger was the big story in games one and two. With Spezza and Savard beiong in and out of the line-up it was crucial for Sillinger to step up his game. Ranger had another good series and is starting to become their top offensive threat from the blue-line. Miettinen had a good series scoring three goals including the winner in games two and three. Malkin and Spezza ripped up the Sens in game four scoring 5 points each. The Malkin hattrick in game four was the best individual performance from a Panther this season.

Heading into the NsHL Cup Championship the Florida Panthers have several players who have stepped up in these playoffs. But they have only one true MVP, Patrick Lalime.

Lalime has been rock solid all spring. His record is 10-2 and he has a sparkling 1.78 GAA. He also has two shutouts this spring. The Cats will need another great series from Lalime to win its first NsHL Title.

2004 deal haunts 2008 Sens

Ottawa -- Who could ever imagine the type of impact a trade could have 4 years after the fact. A massive trade between the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers several years ago is being felt on the ice in this years Eastern Conference Final.

The blockbuster deal was as follows:

July 22, 2004 – Florida//Ottawa Trade:

TO FLA: Jason Spezza, Patrick Lalime, Igor Mirnov (prospect), Patrick Eaves (prospect) & Year 2006: OTT 4 (traded to NASH on 01/22/06)

TO OTT: Roberto Luongo & Year 2005: FLA 1

The trade involved some big names moving around. Jason Spezza and Roberto Luongo are Franchise changing type of athletes.

The early returns on this deal were pretty one sided as the Senators won back to back Presidents Trophies in '04-05 and '05-06. The Sens are still a major force in the NsHL as their march to the Eastern Final showed this season.

Luongo is now in Los Angeles and has his team two games away from a birth in the Championship Series.

In the long term this trade is proving to be quite a problem for the Senators. Lalime (a trade throw-in) is currently backstopping the Panthers to a series win over the Sens. Lalime has faced 97 shots in the Eastern Final and stopped 92 of them. He's been the main difference in this series as he outplays the goalie tandem in Ottawa.

Jason Spezza is also making life very tough on his former team. Spezza plays on the number one line for Florida and they've produced two of the three game winners against Ottawa in this East Final.

Panthers current management spoke out about the trade after practise today. "The current administration owes a great deal to the previous GM. The deal has helped build the Franchise to its point today. We recognize the potential in Spezza and felt great to have him in the organization. Patrick and Jason are key ingredients to every thing we've accomplished to date and we hope they continue to make life miserable for their former mates."

The Panthers hope to continue to frustrate the Sens and the rest of the NsHL with Spezza and Lalime leading the way.

Florida beats Ottawa to take 3-0 series lead.

Ottawa -- Antti Miettinen scored his second game winner in a row to propel the Florida Panthers into a commanding 3-0 series lead.

The Ottawa Senators pumped up by the home crowd had a tremendous first period on Tuesday night. But the Sens could not beat their former teammate Patrick Lalime.

Lalime stopped 14 shots in the first period to set the tone for the rest of the night.

"Patty has been terrific for us," said Jason Spezza. "They came out flying and he kept us in the game."

After weathering the storm, the Southern Cats scored late in the first period thanks to a Paul Ranger one-timer. It was Rangers 5th goal in his last 9 playoff games for the Panthers.

Kyle Calder scored a short-handed goal in the second period which deflated the Sens and lifted the Panthers to a 2-0 lead. It was a lead they needed as the Sens fought back in period three to make it close. Miettinen's game winner was sandwiched between Ottawa goals from Cammalleri and Phaneuf.

Game four goes Thursday night with Ottawa needing the win to stay alive.

GAME NOTES: Mike Sillinger continues his brilliant play versus the Sens. Sillinger had two assists in game three which gives him 7 points in the series ...... Marc Savard was back in the line-up after sitting out the last four games due to a suspension ..... Petr Taticek was sent to the press box to make room for Savard ..... Taticek had seven points in seven playoff games ..... Jonas Hiller was the surprise starter in goal for Ottawa. He made 25 saves in a losing cause.

Sillinger Stops Sens

Florida -- The Florida Panthers won the first battle over the Ottawa Senators in the war to claim the Eastern Crown. In front of another soldout crowd, the Panthers won game one of the best of seven series 4-2.

It could easily be said the Southern Cats actually survived more than won the game. Although they more than kept up with the grit of the Sens, Ottawa had much more of the attack time and peppered Panthers goalie Patrick Lalime all night long.

Although outshot by the Sens 41-29, the Panthers had control of the scoreboard for much of the game. Mike Sillinger was leading the charge for the Cats with 2 goals and a helper. While Paul Ranger added two points including the Game Winner.

The Big Cats grabbed a quick 1-0 advantage early in the first on a power-play goal by Ivan Majesky. Less than a minute later, Sillinger banged away a rebound for his first of the night and the Panthers were off to a flying start.

The Sens got a goal from Brandon Bochenski in the opening frame and then tied the game midway through the second period on a goal by Scott Thornton. The Sens certainly owned the middle stanza and were starting to take over momentum in the game.

But the third period proved to be a time for Sillinger to shine. He set-up the eventual game winner by Ranger at 4.07 and then scored late in the frame on a pretty little deke.

The game did have some messy moments. Several scrums and yap-fests took place during the game. In the third period, Scott Thornton hit the Panthers star pivot Jason Spezza with a clean crunching hit. His linemate Evgeni Malkin took a long run at Thornton and his boarding penalty was the only call on the play.

Coach Keenan was not happy with Malkin taking the penalty but did like his stars jam saying afterwards:
"We can't take silly penalties like that. This team will make us pay ... for sure. I thought we battled well tonight and obviously Evgeni was showing what he thought of the hit on Jason. Sticking up for a fallen teammate is something he probably would not have done earlier this season. I don't think the coaching staff has any problems with our performance tonight. But we don't want too much undisciplined play."

GAME NOTES: Patrick Lalime continues to be the biggest story of these playoffs. Lalime stopped 39 of 41 shots and upped his record to 8-2 in the post season...... David Aebischer got the call for the Sens and stopped 25 of 29 shots. The goalie call for game two should be interesting for the Sens coaches. It could be anyone ... maybe even the ghost of Percy LeSueur.......Jason Spezza is listed as a game time decision for game two with an upper body injury. Spezza has been nagged with several injuries in this post season run. He missed one game last series against the Philadelphia Flyers and left game one in obvious distress.......The Cats rolled four lines most of the game showing a nice balanced attack........The Sens used just three lines forcing Steve Begin and Wayne Primeau to be stuck riding the pine all night.......Ed Jovanovski was a strong force again last night playing a team leading 24 minutes......The line of Sillinger, Kyle Calder and Juraj "playoff performer" Kolnik was a combined +9 with 2 goals 4 assists and ten shots on goal.

Panthers Make Eastern Final

Florida -- The Florida Panthers Playoff run will continue for atleast one more series after they eliminated the Philadelphia Flyers in six games.

The Panthers played only one game in the series with a full line-up. In the first two games they played without Jason Spezza and Evgeni Malkin as the pair were injured in game one and missing from game two. The team scored 2-1 victories in both games to take a 2-0 advantage over the Flyers.

In the third game, Marc Savard was out of the line-up nursing an injury and the team won a key road game 5-3. Game four was the only game the Cats iced their full line-up. It resulted in a 4-3 overtime loss. The Flyers had crawled back into the series down 3-1.

In the final two games of the series the Panthers played without Marc Savard who was suspended by the league. After losing game five 3-2, the Panthers played a perfect game six and shutout the Flyers 4-0.

The Series versus Philadelphia was a very close one. Four of the six games were settled by one goal. The Panthers did not take a penalty over the final two games. It turned out to be important because the Panthers gave up 3 powerplay goals during the first four games of the series.

Important players in the series included:

The line of Nathan Horton, Justin Williams and Petr Taticek. This line was put together because of injuries to Spezza and Savard. The line combined to score 6 goals and 15 assists along with one game winner. The line was getting stronger as the series went on, Williams scored 5 goals in the final four games. Petr Taticek had 7 points in just five games.

On defense, the top pairing was Paul Ranger and Ed Jovanovski. Ranger had three goals and five points. Jovanovski added three helpers in the series and provided good tough play from the blueline. Jovocop played in all situations and was often double shifted to take advantage of his solid play.

Other solid performances came from Juraj Kolnik and Patrick Lalime. Kolnik played an intense series and contributed many big hits. Kolnik leads the Panthers in hits during this playoff run. He chipped in three goals during the series including the Series winner. Patrick Lalime is now 7-2 in these playoffs and leads all goalies in playoff shutouts with two.