Florida Panthers edge Montreal Canadiens in shootout 3-2 -NHL Update
Florida Panthers continue to show their consistency as a team in the third spot of the Eastern Conference, winning their Tuesday night contest against Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, in a shootout at the sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Panthers certainly felt the heat during the past few matchups as Washington was attempting to make a comeback and having been down only by three points entering their own contest against Boston Bruins, Capitals were on track to overtake Florida.
Luckily for Florida, Capitals lost to the Bruins and stayed at bay as Panthers increased their lead in the South Eastern Division by five points now.
"Knowing that Washington lost and with us getting the two points, every game that goes by the complexion changes," Florida Panthers goalie, Scott Clemmensen, said. "We're in the driver's seat and we want to tighten our grip a little bit. In a perfect world
we can go into Washington next week and have a big cushion to take that pressure off ourselves, but we have some work to do ahead of time on the road against teams that are out of the playoffs."
Wojtek Wolski grabbed his fourth of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season 13:04 into the first while Erik Cole did not let Montreal sit behind for long with his power play goal 56 seconds later.
Louis Leblanc gave Montreal the lead in the last two minutes of the second but Canadiens could not hold on as Mikael Samuelsson fired the equaliser at 12:48 into the third to give Florida another life in overtime.
Wolski emerged with the game-winner in the shootout decider after a failed overtime extension as he scored on Florida’s first attempt on Carey Price while all others failed.
Florida Panthers have the next on Thursday against Minnesota Wild, a matchup which they will most likely dominate and continue to extend their lead in the South Eastern Division.
Montreal Canadiens on the other hand, already ousted of the playoffs, have five more to go until their season comes to an end, with the next being against New York Rangers on Friday at the Madison Square Garden.
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