Florida Panthers pounce on Toronto defence to take down Maple Leafs 5-3 -NHL Update
Florida Panthers took advantage of the vulnerable Toronto defence and attacked them at every open opportunity they had to takedown the Maple Leafs, 5-3, on Tuesday night, December 27, 2011, at the sold out BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, United
States.
The previous season, Florida was a team struggling not only in terms of performance but also in the category of being unable to attract fans to come and see games in their home stadium. Now the seats are full as Florida stands third in the Eastern Conference,
which is definitely a positive sign for the Panthers organisation and the National Hockey League (NHL) as well.
Toronto managed to stay in the game up until the opening minutes of the second period after Erik Gudbranson made the first goal to put Florida ahead at 1:57 in the initial 20 minutes and Mikhail Grabovski answered back nearly a period later.
"It was 1-to-1 and we were controlling the game", Maple Leafs coach, Ron Wilson, said. "They scored early but didn't have a sniff after that and from 1-to-1 we should've been able to springboard off of that and we immediately gave them the lead right back".
After Toronto levelled the contest, Florida made a strong comeback with Bill Thomas scoring his inaugural goal of the 2011-2012 NHL regular season, followed by Jason Garrison and Kris Versteeg on two back-to-back power play opportunities.
Versteeg was handling the puck on a narrow corner veteran Florida goalie, Jose Theodore, but still managed to fire it in after eyeing the open slot behind the goalkeeper.
Dion Phaneuf managed to add another Toronto goal nearly midway through the second for his fifth while Mikhail Grabovski potted their last of the night at the 9:17 mark of the third, which brought them within one of the score at, 4-3, but Tomas Fleischmann
took it out of their hands with another Florida goal nearly two minutes later.
"That's what we were really looking for", Panthers coach, Kevin Dineen, said. "They're a really good hockey team. We're so respectful of the talent and that's not just blabber after the game. We really were worried about the speed and the skill that they
have and sometimes the best defense is a good offense".
Florida has the next at home again, this time against the New York Rangers on Friday while Toronto Maple Leafs pay a visit to Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
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