Todd Bertuzzi wasted little time making a
good impression on the Florida Panthers.
Bertuzzi had a goal and three assists _ his first four-point
night since Feb. 25, 2003 _ in his Florida debut, and Joe Nieuwendyk
had two goals and an assist as the Panthers opened the season with
an 8-3 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday night.
Alex Auld, who came to the Panthers with Bertuzzi in the
off-season trade that sent all-star goalie Roberto Luongo to
Vancouver, stopped 34 shots for Florida.
Mike Van Ryn, Juraj Kolnik, Nathan Horton, Chris Gratton and Olli
Jokinen also scored for the Panthers, who outscored Boston 4-1 in
the third period. Ruslan Salei, Rostislav Olesz and Jozef Stumpel
each had two assists for the Panthers.
Marco Sturm had a goal and an assist, Glen Murray and Wayne
Primeau each had a goal and Zdeno Chara added two assists for
Boston, which has two wins in its last 11 season openers.
The Bruins cut the deficit to 3-2 early in the second period on
Murray's goal, but the Panthers scored the next four to take
control. Nieuwendyk tapped in a centring pass from Bertuzzi at 9:01
of the second for a 4-2 lead, then scored again at 1:23 of the third
period.
Nieuwendyk's goals gave him 561 for his career, pushing him past
Guy LaFleur for 19th on the NHL's career list.
Horton got a power-play score at 6:34, then set up Gratton for
the goal that knocked Bruins goalie Tim Thomas out of the game at
8:21. Thomas stopped 27 of 34 shots, before being relieved by Hannu
Toivonen _ who allowed Jokinen's goal with 4:56 left.
Florida was 4-for-6 on the power play; Boston 1-for-8.
Bertuzzi scored Florida's first goal of the season at 6:33 of the
opening period, when he gathered the rebound of Jokinen's shot and
quickly tucked it past Thomas _ starting a flurry of power-play
scores.
Van Ryn made it 2-0 when he took a diagonal pass from Jozef
Stumpel, took his time getting set and fired the puck past Thomas'
near side 47 seconds after Bertuzzi's score.
Boston got within 2-1 when Sturm, camped out on the red line to
the right of the net, collected Marc Savard's pass and _ despite a
poor angle _ beat Auld from close range. But Kolnik restored
Florida's two-goal edge at 18:29 of the first, spinning in the slot
to push a rebound of Jay Bouwmeester's shot into an open net.
The Bruins made it 3-2 only 29 seconds into the second period.
Sturm was pushed off the puck by Bouwmeester, but Murray was left
unmarked in the slot and beat Auld.
It was all Florida from there, as the Panthers scored five
straight goals before Primeau's unassisted tally with 53.9 seconds
left.
Notes: Nieuwendyk has 45 points in 42 games against the Bruins.
... Florida had never previously scored more than four goals in a
season opener. ... Boston had just six players back from the opening
game of the 2005-06 season. ... The Panthers killed off two separate
power plays in a span of 4:12 during the first period.
