Centreman Marty Reasoner lit the lamp twice in the first period to help Florida Panthers build a 4-0 lead and they went on to an eventual 6-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.
Reasoner impelled the Florida to its 14th victory of the season with his game-winning goals.
Stephen Weiss and Michael Frolik each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who had dropped their previous two. Tomas Vokoun saved 41 of 43 shots in the win.
Bryan McCabe and David Booth had the other Panthers’ goals, while Shawn Matthias, Evgeny Dadonov and Chris Higgins each had two assists.
By scoring in the second period, Derek Roy was one of the few bright spots for the Sabres in the team's 6-2 loss to the Panthers. Centreman Tim Connolly also had a goal for the Buffalo, which was 4-1-1 in its previous six games.
“I thought we had some guys that skated very poorly,” said Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff. “We didn’t have the energy we normally have and it showed up. Our attack, our north-south, we were a step behind.”
Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller was pulled after giving up four goals to the Florida in the first period. Patrick Lalime replaced the Miller and stopped 14 of 16 shots in the last two periods, but it was Miller who had to suffer.
Panthers did all the scoring in the first period with four goals in the opening 20 minutes.
Florida’s first goal came at 1:40 when defenseman Bryan McCabe hit a shot from the left point that Miller blocked. McCabe got his own rebound and snapped it in for the early lead.
Panthers got a 2-0 lead when Reasoner scored his first goal at the 8:23. Reasoner’s pass from the right circle hit off the skate of Steve Montador in front and sneaked past Ryan Miller.
Reasoner scored his second goal at 14:08 and made it 3-0. He grabbed the puck off the back boards and snapped it in from the right circle.
The two goals snapped an 11-game drought for Reasoner, who does not have any hat trick in his 12-year career.
"I had been getting some chances that weren't going on, so getting these two gets the confidence going," said Reasoner. "Whenever they pushed us tonight we responded and it was a big win."
Skating on the power play, David Booth completed the first-period outburst with a wrester for his 8th goal of the season.
The four goals were the most given up by Sabres for any period this season and matched Panthers’ season high.
Both teams traded goals late in the second period and early in the third. Michael Frolik scored with 1:02 left in the second and gave the Panthers a 5-0 lead. Derek Roy got Buffalo on the board with his 10th goal of the year in the final moments of second.
Stephen Weiss scored just 13 seconds into the third, while Tim Connolly had a goal later on the same power play to make it 6-2.
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