Sunday, October 19, 2008

Islanders 0 | Panthers 2

Courtesy of the Panthers' website:
SUNRISE – Just in case you were wondering if this year’s Panthers and Tomas Vokoun could bounce back from a tough loss, the team left 16,087 at BankAtlantic Center with a parting gift Saturday evening before heading out on a two game road trip.

A solid 2-0 shutout of the Islanders.

Just 48 hours after a sloppy loss to Minnesota, the Panthers regrouped and put together a solid effort behind goals from Nick Boynton and Cory Stillman (power play) and a 31-save performance by Vokoun, who registered his 26th NHL shutout.

“It was a good effort,” said coach Peter DeBoer, who’s Panthers (2-2) hit the road Sunday for games Monday in Montreal and Wednesday in Ottawa. “I thought Tomas was real solid tonight. He was as disappointed if not more disappointed in his effort the other night than anyone.”

Bryan Allen sat out tonight with the knee injury. Still hoping it's not too serious..

Olesz played on the third line tonight with Campbell and Dvorak, while Belak and Kreps were in again -- meaning that, yes, Frolik and Stewart were once more healthy scratches.

As for Frolik being a scratch again, let's move over to Rochester. They were in Manitoba for the latter contest of a two-game weekend series and once again, the Amerks found themselves on the short end, falling by a score of 4-1.

Chris Beckford-Tseu got the start, despite Plante's good game yesterday, and BT allowed the four Moose goals. Rochester, however, allowed 41 shots to get through to Beckford-Tseu.

The lone Amerk goal came off the stick of Tanner Glass, with McArdle and Beaverson picking up assists on the tally.

Shawn Matthias remains scoreless and now, through five games, is a combined -6, but he played on a line with Janis Sprukts and Michal Repik and from what I've read, had a solid game.

And now, while he's hardly the intimidating presence the Amerks would love to have, Mike Duco continues to just stockpile penalty minutes. He racked up 19 more tonight thanks to an instigating misconduct, which moves him to 55 PIM through five games. This total does lead the whole of the American Hockey League.

Last but not least, Matt Rust, this season centering the Michigan Wolverines' top line as a sophomore, picked up two goals and an assist in a 5-3 Michigan win tonight. Through four games, Rust now has 2 goals and 4 assists. That number is good enough to put him in a tie for fifth in the CCHA - while the top four players are tied with 7 points. Kid's off to an awesome start.

1 comment:

Keith Wozniak said...

Solid games and racking up penalty minutes doesn't win games, scoring points does. We've been down the path before of solid games, efforts, physical hockey, but unless goals are scored the team doesn't win. here in rochester we need wins. the kids need wins to boost there confidence. last season was rough, that needs to change.

ps.. great site, enjoy reading it daily!