Recap: Panthers 1, Hurricanes 0

After a fast start in Colorado, the Carolina Hurricanes came out a bit flat-footed again, allowed a goal in the first 21 seconds of the game and ended up losing to the Florida Panthers, 1-0 on Wednesday night in front of 8,119 in Sunrise Florida.

The Panthers controlled play to start out the game and Nick Bjugstad sent a puck toward the net early that went in and ended up being the game-winner.  It was a rather odd goal to decide the outcome considering three goalies would make save after save the rest of the game.

Probably the best save of the contest would be made by Roberto Luongo when he robbed Victor Rask of an empty net but Luongo hurt himself on the play and would be replaced by Al Montoya midway through the second period.

Montoya went on to make 21 saves on 21 shots to preserve the shutout for his teammate.   The Canes had only managed 11 shots on goal when Luongo went down, 30:22 into the game.  The visitors were outshot 15-6 in the first period, but ended up outshooting the Cats, 33-28 for the game.

The loss is the third straight for the Hurricanes, who now have a record of 1-6-0 in their last seven games.  Next up will be the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh on Friday night, the first of a home-and-home sequence against the Pens.

Game Notes:

• Once again, Bill Peters tried the one-time dominating first line of Semin, Staal, and Tlusty, to no avail.  He ended up breaking the line up and mixing lines in the third.
• The Panthers sat back and the Canes applied pressure in the third period, while out-shooting the home team 17-5, but could not get one past Montoya.  Faulk led the way with six shots with Skinner right behind him with five.
• The team won just 42% of the game's draws.
• Gleason had a team high five hits while Staal was next with four.  The Canes were credited with 29 after notching just six hits against the Avs.
• event summary stat sheet
• Peters is starting to sound like a broken record because it's the same story game after game.  "You need to play for 60 minutes."  Bill Peters post game presser