Kirk Muller's Carolina Hurricanes dominated by Florida Panthers 3-1 in debut match -NHL Update
Kirk Muller was certainly excited about his first matchup with Carolina after the team fired coach, Paul Maurice, a day earlier, but had it ruined as the rowdy Florida Panthers did not feel any sympathy and dominated the Hurricanes, 3-1, on Tuesday night,
November 29, 2011, at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States.
Florida continued to make strides after two disappointing victories to their rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in back-to-back matchups, but still stand strong at number two in the Eastern Conference with 30 points, below the first place Pittsburgh Penguins
by just two.
Panthers coach, Kevin Dineen, agrees that Carolina might have come out with full force, but it was due to a way they found to win that ultimately gave them the match.
"If I'm (a) player with a new coach, I'm going to come out with a ton of jump, and they did," Florida coach Kevin Dineen said. "That one was not our finest effort. It wasn't our worst effort. It was one of those games where you find a way and we found a
way tonight."
After a scoreless opening 20 minute period, Tomas Fleischmann scored his 11th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season during their first power play opportunity of the second period.
Jeff Skinner answered back for Carolina in the next minute to reach double digits in his scoring while Shawn Matthias rallied in the third and final period of regulation by scoring two straight in the closing moments to take control of the contest, including
the insurance shot on a breakaway with less than a minute to go.
"We just asked them this morning to bring a good, competitive part of your game here tonight," Muller said. "We added a couple things, a little change in the system to be a little more aggressive and up-ice, so you don't have any time to really practice
it. I thought they really did their part."
Florida have their next match in Los Angeles against the Kings on Thursday while the Hurricanes will be hosting the New York Rangers on the same day.
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