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.