Saturday, Jan. 27 7:30pm ET
Bure scores pair in Panthers' OT win
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SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Panthers probably wish they
could play more home games against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Pavel Bure scored a pair of goals, including the winner 59
seconds into overtime, as the Panthers beat the Lightning 3-2 on
Saturday night.
Marcus Nilson also scored for the Panthers, who won for only the
fifth time in 24 home games this season.
"I don't care who it's against now as long as it's a win,"
Panthers coach Duane Sutter said. "As I've said several times, you
can see improvement."
Fredrik Modin and Brian Holzinger scored for Tampa Bay, which
has lost nine straight and 13 of 14. The Lightning have lost their
last 12 games in South Florida dating to a 2-1 victory on April 10,
1996.
With the score tied at 2, Bure was stopped by Kevin Weekes in
the waning seconds of regulation. Weekes also stopped Bure's first
shot in overtime from the slot. But Bure won it with his 28th goal
of the season when he poked the puck in from the edge of the front
of the crease after Robert Svehla passed the puck from the right
circle.
It was Bure's ninth goal in his last eight games against Tampa
Bay.
"I just tried to kind of hide, then find the open spot," Bure
said. "(Rob) Niedermayer made a good play. He made a nice pass to
Bobby, who saw me at the post. It was almost an empty net."
Sutter began overtime with Bure playing defense.
"We've got nothing to lose now, we need all the points we can
get," Sutter said. "Anytime the defense can be activated to join
the game, it's going to cause problems."
With 5:13 left in the third, Nilson tied it when he pushed the
puck in from the right side, while Weekes came forward in the
crease. It was his sixth goal, but first in 15 games.
"I finally got a goal," Nilson said. "It was a big game
tonight and a big two points for us."
Modin put Tampa Bay up 1-0 at 8:11 of the first with his 22nd
goal of the year. Martin St. Louis dug the puck out of the boards
along the right side, and Modin swatted the puck over Trevor Kidd's
glove.
The Panthers came right back to tie it on Bure's first goal of
the game at 11:20. Bure circled behind the net and Viktor Kozlov
found him outside the right circle.
"He played 30 minutes last night, so I didn't know how much
he'd have left in his tank," Sutter said of Bure. "But he got
better as the game went on."
Holzinger put the Lightning ahead 2-1 when he redirected Craig
Millar's shot from the top of the right circle at 18:13 of the
second. Just moments later, Niedermayer just missed tying it when
the puck glanced off the right post.
"No, I'm not overly disappointed," Lightning coach John
Tortorella said. "We took a step, got to overtime, got a point.
We've just got to learn how to win, and this was a step in the
right direction."
Game notes
Before the game, the Panthers activated Len Barrie off
injured reserve. Barrie had been out since Dec. 30 after a second
surgery on his injured kidney. ... Kozlov extended his point streak
to five games. ... Florida leads the intrastate rivalry 24-7-7,
including 14-2-3 at home. ... The Lightning have scored 11 goals in
eight games since Vincent Lacavalier went down with a broken left
foot. ... Florida's Mike Sillinger, a former Tampa Bay player,
missed his second straight game after injuring his groin in
practice Friday.
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