Reinprecht & Olesz Lead Cats Over Stars

Stephen Reinprecht scored three goals last night in the first period getting a natual hat trick and the fifth hat trick of his career as the Florida Panthers took a 3-0 lead 15:49 minutes into the first.  Could this be a romp?  Not so as before the period ended Dallas had come back with 2 quick goals of their own and the first period ended with the Panthers on top 3-2.

The wildness continued as the Panthers pulled ahead 4-2 with Jordan Leopold getting one in the opening few minutes of the second, but then the Stars found a way (or maybe the Panthers let them) to get back into the game and we were tied 4-4 after two periods.  Dallas seemed to control the second with a bit of physical play as well as outshooting the Cats 10-6.  The teams traded goals with Rusty Olesz who had one of his best games as a Panther ever putting them ahead to start the third.  That lead would not last long as Fabian Brunnstrum tied it up about a minute later with, yes his first goal of the season.  Do we have a count yet of how many players have their first against the Cats this year?

Moving to the shootout, one was wondering if The Foreigner was going to get a chance, but coach DeBoer made a business decision and left his shoot out specialist and his fat contract on the bench and Rusty came to the rescue again, getting the game winner past former Panther goalie Alex Auld.

It wasn’t pretty.  It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t all that bad.  However going up 3-0 in the first did you say to yourself,  there’s too much time left, don’t relax, or did you somehow believe that the Panthers would find a way to make this interesting?  Yea, thought so.

We’ll take it as the Panthers won their third game of the season and now head to St. Louis tonight.

Our Molson Canadien Player of the Game:

Steven Reinprecht 

Here’s to you Rhino. 

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!