Hockey's Back!

The Panthers pre-season has begun in Calgary against the Flames. It's been months since the Cats' 07-08 season ended, but the wait is finally over!

Tonight's game opened with Greg Campbell, Brett McLean and Radek Dvorak on the starting line. Bouwmeester and Cullimore started on defense, and Craig Anderson got the call in net with Beckford-Tseu as his backup.

Rostislav Olesz had played on a line with Nathan Horton and Cory Stillman through camp and the scrimmages - part of the team scheduled to play tomorrow night's game, but he was moved to play tonight.

David Booth, Stephen Weiss and Michael Frolik were impressive on a line together; Frolik especially, getting his nose into play quite a bit and generating a few chances, including a breakaway that he created after stripping the puck from a Flame.

Weiss went four for eighteen on face-offs, winning only two of eight against Wayne Primeau and losing all four to Matthew Lombardi. Kreps won five of fifteen and Brett McLean won four of ten. Other face-offs were scattered among a handful of players.

Scoring opened in the second period off the stick of David Booth before a mid-period goal from the Flames evened things up, and a late goal put Calgary on top.

In the third, while the Cats struggled through a 10-1 shots against rally, Olesz, who had missed the net a few times prior, tied the game up again at two, and with a little less than four minutes to play, Jay Bouwmeester rushed in and put a backhand behind McElhinney.

Anthony Stewart picked up an assist on the Olesz goal and earned a statistical reward after playing all night like a man on a mission.

The team travels to Edmonton for games tomorrow night and Thursday night. It will be the group that sat this one out on the ice against the Oilers for the first game.

So while it's too early to tell who has won a roster spot, the ball has gotten rolling for guys like Michael Frolik. If he continues to perform like he has tonight, he may well play himself into the Panthers' lineup to start the season.

** Djurgårdens handed Markström his first loss of the season today, scoring four goals on thirty shots.