Florida Panthers make history with 4-2 victory over New Jersey Devils to level series -NHL Playoffs
It had been over 12 years since Florida saw the playoffs for the last time and even longer since their last postseason victory, but Panthers were determined to make history as they levelled the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Eastern Conference playoff
quarterfinals series against New Jersey Devils with a 4-2 victory.
Stephen Weiss’ two goals of the night were enough to get the job done as Florida registered their first playoff victory in 15 years on Sunday night, April 15, 2012, at the sold-out BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida.
New Jersey made an impressive comeback in the third period as Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk scored two straight, making it a one point game with a little less than 18 minutes remaining on the clock.
Luckily, it was Tomas Fleischmann who secured the match and saved them from any post-regulation contests with his insurance goal at 19:59.
"I was freaking out," Weiss said. "You can say scary. I was freaking out. That's the wrong guy you want to be shooting with 7 seconds left. But sometimes your buddies have to bail you out."
Florida came out hard and gave New Jersey goalie, Martin Brodeur, a run for his money as he faced 23 shots and fell short on three before being pulled out after playing for 58:44.
Despite the loss, Brodeur is still confident that it will not affect his team at all.
"It's important to stay composed," Brodeur said. "I think it's easy to get frustrated and not be happy about the situation because we had a chance to go up 2-0 in the series. But at the end of the day, you go on the road, you should be happy to split the
series. You should be happy that we came back in the game and made it really interesting for them late in the game and we have to build off that."
Stephen Weiss had two power play goals, one in the first period with another in the second, while Marcel Goc extended it to 3-0 with less than six minutes remaining entering the final round of competition.
The series will now be heading to New Jersey as Devils and Florida Panthers face-off at the Prudential Center for a tie-breaking game-three on Tuesday, April 17.
Tags: