Last Glimmer of Hope?

Cross-Posted at The Panthers Daily Puck

Reeling from an absolutely putrid January, the Panthers had to get a win. At risk of becoming irrelevant in a bad Southeast Division, the Panthers faced off with former face of the franchise Roberto Luongo and his Vancouver Canucks. Right from the get go the Panthers played with emotion; driving to the net hard and finishing all of their checks.

Predictably, the Panthers would play a hard first period only to give up a goal to the Canucks with 10 seconds left in the period. Vancouver was 21-6 after scoring the first goal of the game.

In the second period, the Panthers didn't let up on the effort. 5:04 into the second period, the Horton-Booth-Weiss line would connect on Nathan Horton's 13th goal of the season. The rest of the period was played out with two more goals, one by the Canucks and one by Jozef Stumpel on the power play. Olli even got into the fray by fighting with Ryan Kesler at the end of the period.

The third period started off with the types of stupid mistakes we've come to expect from the Panthers: Ruslan Salei carried the puck deep into Vancouver's zone and no one covered his position leading to Vancouver Rookie Mason Raymond scoring five hole on Vokoun. Big hits continued to be a major part of the game as the Panthers played strong defense while keeping the pressure on the Nucks (why they don't this all the time, beats the crap out of me). Coming off a power play that saw few shots from the Cats, Stephen Weiss received a beautiful feed Steve Montador and blistered a shot over Luongo's left shoulder. The Panthers and the Canucks would end the period with the Cats on a power play.

In the overtime period, not much went on in the way of Cats chances. Enter Tomas Vokoun. In the last two minutes, Vokoun stopped three point blank chances, one by Ryan Kesler, one by the Sedin twins, and one by Markus Naslund on the penalty shot.

Into the shootout, the Panthers elected to go with Horton, Weiss, and Jokinen in that order. The Vancouver Canucks went with Taylor Pyatt, Alex Edler, and Daniel Sedin. In a move that was somewhat surprising, the Panthers elected to shoot second. Pyatt skated in on Vokoun where he was met with Vokoun's shutting of the five hole on him. Next, Horton took the puck and skated in Luongo where he went to Luongo's left, delayed his shot, and then scored inside the right post! The Panthers now had the lead in the shootout; all they had to do was score once more and or have Vokie stand on his head. Vokoun was visibly pumped up and in a zone. Alex Edler who had scored on 2 of his 4 shootout attempts tried to go top left corner on Vokie. But Tomas stacked the pads and denied Edler's attempt to get to the shelf where Mrs. Moller keeps the peanut butter. Stephen Weiss went on to miss on his shot attempt. It was up to Vokoun now to deny the Canucks for the Panthers first win on home ice since the Ottawa game. Daniel Sedin skated in and put on several moves. As he made one last move, the puck rolled off the stick and the Panthers, especially Vokie, and the fans, were pumped up to see the team pull off such an emotional win!

This team has one shot to get into the post season and that is to win the division. Somehow the Panthers have lucked into being in the Southleast division this year with no one taking charge. If the Panthers can reel off wins in the next 5 games, the Cats may be in business again. Hopefully, tonight was not just another mirage that we have become so accustomed to as Cats fans. This may be the last glimmer of hope that we see this season. But the impossible dream lives on in the aching hearts of Cats fans everywhere.

This is either the end or the beginning. Make it a beginning Jacques, make it a beginning Nathan, make it a beginning Olli. Its time to play real hockey in South Florida again!