Minnesota Wild disappoint Florida Panthers with 3-2 overtime win -NHL Update
Florida had the match under control with less than six minutes remaining on the clock during round-three but Minnesota bounced back as the Wild disappointing Panthers by levelling and taking the two points in overtime, 3-2, Thursday night, March 29, 2012,
at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Panthers got the one point for heading into OT, but they probably preferred getting all two since it was their third loss out of regulation in the past four.
"That's a tough one," Florida Panthers veteran goalie, Jose Theodore, said. "We could've had two, probably should've had two. But you've got to forget about it."
Scottie Upshall got Florida on the scoreboard with his second of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season at 13:27 into the mid-period.
Kyle Brodziak levelled it in the opening minutes of the final round of regulation while Tomas Fleischmann tried to take the match for Florida with the tie-breaker at 13:16 on the power play but Erik Christensen’s amazing equaliser with 31 seconds left kept
Minnesota alive.
"We haven't taken the easy path all year long," Panthers coach, Kevin Dineen, said. "It's been an up and down season, and we scratch and claw, and all our games have been so close that sometimes we end up on the wrong side of it."
Florida could not get a single attempt during the overtime extension in hope to make the deciding goal, but Minnesota capitalised on other only chance as Mikko Koivu was fed the puck by Tom Gilbert for the win only 15 seconds in.
"It was a great play by [Gilbert], right on the tape," Koivu said. "It's always nice to win.”
Minnesota Wild was atop of the Western Conference at one point in the season but with a number of player injuries, the team could not find a way to comeback. They have the next at home against Los Angeles Kings.
Florida is still number-one in the South Eastern Division with 90 points and at the third spot in the Eastern Conference. They have the next on the road against Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.
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