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.