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.