Hurricanes 0 - 2 Panthers
Final
  for this game

Cats shut out Hurricanes to stay atop Southeast

Mar 12, 2012 - 1:21 AM Sunrise, FL (Sports Network) - Jose Theodore made 34 saves to record his third shutout of the season and 33rd of his career as the Florida Panthers blanked the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-0, on Sunday.

Tomas Fleischmann and Marcel Goc supplied the goals for the Panthers, who snapped a brief two-game skid. The win gave the Panthers 77 points and kept them in first place in the Southeast Division by one point over Washington, which topped Toronto on Sunday.

"I think there's been recognition by our guys that what we play for is the playoffs," Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen said. "We're not there yet, but the effort is there every night and our good players are playing very well right now."

Cam Ward was the hard-luck loser, giving up one goal on 32 shots in defeat.

After a scoreless first 20 minutes, the Panthers struck 3:22 into the second frame.

Stephen Weiss raced through the neutral zone and dropped it off for Fleischmann, who walked into a quick wrister from the left circle that beat Ward through the five-hole for the 1-0 lead.

The Hurricanes pulled Ward with less than two minutes to play and got some quality shots on Theodore, but were ultimately unable to find the tying goal before Goc sealed it with an empty-netter at 18:28 of the third period.

Theodore stopped five shots in the first period, 19 in the second and 10 in the third to record the shutout. Carolina also failed to score with two power- play chances.

"Our guys played hard," Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller said. "We played last night and I thought we emptied the tank and gave it everything we had tonight."

Game Notes

Panthers forward Wojtek Wolski had an assist and has 11 points in 11 career games against Carolina and has five points in nine games with the Panthers since being acquired from the Rangers prior to the trade deadline...Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner had his three-game point streak snapped...Ward fell to 12-9-2 in 26 career appearances against Florida, while Theodore improved to 20-12-3 with five shutouts in 37 career appearances against Carolina...Florida did not score on its only man advantage chance.






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