Marty Reasoner scored twice and Tomas Vokoun turned aside 41 shots as the Florida Panthers scored four times in the first period and cruised to a 6-2 triumph over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
Stephen Weiss collected a goal and an assist and defenseman Bryan McCabe, David Booth and Michael Frolik also tallied for Florida (14-16-0), which entered the contest as the third-worst scoring team in the NHL.
Rookie Evgeny Dadonov and Shawn Matthias notched a pair of assists apiece as the Panthers snapped a modest two-game losing skid.
After McCabe opened the scoring just 1:40 into the contest, Reasoner tallied twice nearly six minutes apart to give the Panthers a quick three-goal advantage.
With Florida on the power play, Booth capped the scoring in the session with his eighth of the season. Booth shares the team-lead in goals with Mike Santorelli and Frolik, who tallied with 1:02 left in the second to give Florida a five-goal bulge.
The offensive outburst was more than enough for Vokoun, who improved to 12-12-0 this season.
Derek Roy ended Vokoun's shutout bid with 19 seconds left in the second period. Roy netted his 10th goal of the season to extend his points streak to four games for Buffalo (13-15-4), which fell to 4-2-1 in its last seven outings.
Ryan Miller struggled mightily in his ninth straight start. The defending Vezina Trophy winner permitted four goals on 10 shots before being relieved by Patrick Lalime, who finished with 14 saves.
Tim Connolly netted a power-play goal at 1:41 of the third period, but the deficit was too big for the Sabres.
Buffalo | Florida | |
Tim Connolly 1 | Points | Marty Reasoner 2 |
Tim Connolly 1 | Goals | Marty Reasoner 2 |
Tyler Ennis 1 | Assists | Evgeny Dadonov 2 |
Tim Connolly 1 | Power Play Goals | David Booth 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Stephen Weiss 1 |
Patrick Lalime .875 | Save Percentage | Tomas Vokoun .953 |
Patrick Lalime 14 | Saves | Tomas Vokoun 41 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Buffalo | 43 | 2 | 1-5 | 4-5 | 14 | 29 |
Florida | 26 | 6 | 1-5 | 4-5 | 14 | 24 |