Miller Time! For Panthers!

Would not have believed it if I didn’t see if for myself.  And I didn’t since I was not able to watch last night’s contest between the Panthers and Sabres.  With the wonder of technology keeping me up to date and informed I was pleasantly shocked and surprised by the 6-2 victory over Buffalo.

The Panthers having lost 4 of the previous 6 games when taking a lead into the third period were able to not only hang on, but definitely put the game away.  Captain Bryan McCabe put it nicely by saying “We finally held a lead in the third”.  After starting out with a 2-7-1 record for the season the Panthers now have won 6 of 9 and have been able to get points in all but two of those games to attempt to get back some respectability.

This particular victory on the road in Buffalo, which has not been a kind place for Florida recently was payback for the October bashing that the Sabres put on, winning 5-2 after chasing Scott Clemmensen within two minutes of the first period.  In this contest though, the Panthers took 3-1 lead going into the third and put the game out of reach by scoring 3 goals within 69 seconds late in the period.

Michael Frolik tied the game at one with a goal late in the first and also scored again in the third on a power play to get himself hopefully back on track.  Talk of a sophmore slump had been more than just talk recently, so this game hopefully can erase that. 

The Panthers also got goals from Rusty Olesz, Cory Stillman, The Little Weasel and St. Dominic, who recorded his first goal of the season and also had an assist.

Tomas Vokoun continued his razor sharp play of late and stopped 26 of 28 shots, including 21 in the final two periods.   Ryan Miller however was not so good as he was only able to make 18 saves on 23 shots.  He was bound to have a bad game at some point and thankfully had it against the Panthers.

I am sure that the recent performance and with the somewhat respectable turnaround that has been displayed people are beginning the feel that the Panthers will now be on their way to a playoff hunt.  I’m not sold yet on that.  Keep it up I say and prove to me over this next stretch of games where the Panthers are playing virtually every other night for the next week or so, and then maybe I’ll believe.  Be that as it may I am sure that some of you want to get on the proverbial bandwagon.  Go ahead, as you can see below, it’s filling up quickly and not much room is left. 

Don’t worry about saving a spot for me.  I like to drive by myself.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers