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Vokoun, Zednik help Panthers crush Maple Leafs

Feb 6, 2008 - 5:25 AM By Jeff Lieberman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

TORONTO (Ticker) -- Tomas Vokoun has got the Florida Panthers rolling.

Vokoun made 24 saves en route to his fourth shutout of the season and Richard Zednik notched a hat trick and set up another goal as the Panthers cruised to their third straight victory, an 8-0 triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

Captain Olli Jokinen scored his 200th career goal for Florida, which had lost 11 of its previous 15 before its current surge.

Vokoun, who was coming off two impressive performances, was sharp again in this one. He turned aside 13 shots in the first period, eight in the second and three in the third to secure his 25th career blanking.

"I don't get many," Vokoun said of the shutout. "It's nice to get a shutout, but wins are far more important."

The 31-year-old netminder had a superb performance in the shootout in Friday's 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks and made 44 saves in a 3-2 triumph over the rival Tampa Bay Lightning the following night.

"We knew we had to start winning," Vokoun said. "We have to improve our record substantially if we want to make the playoffs."

Zednik netted the winning goal for the second game in a row when he opened the scoring at 6:31 of the first period by tipping defenseman Steve Montador's shot past goaltender Vesa Toskala.

"It was one of those games where the puck went in for us," Zednik said. "It takes the pressure off the goalie when you have a lead. You don't have to worry about it if you make a mistake."

The Panthers expanded their advantage with three goals in the second period. Just 10 seconds into the session, Nathan Horton took a cross-ice feed from David Booth and put it into the vacant side of the net.

Before recording his second career hat trick, Zednik made his best play of the game on Jokinen's tally, faking a shot from the left faceoff circle and feeding Jokinen for a deflection at 3:46.

Defenseman Cory Murphy completed the scoring in the second at 8:19 with just his second goal of the campaign. It also chased Toskala, who was replaced by Andrew Raycroft.

"I think we're happy with the last few games, but tomorrow is another day," Murphy said.

Zednik completed his three-goal night with a pair of power-play goals exactly a minute apart in the final period. He beat Raycroft with 6:11 left to make it 6-0 before netting his 13th goal of the season 60 seconds later.

"It was one of those nights when everything is going well for us, and for them, nothing," Zednik said.

Toskala stopped 11 of the 15 shots he faced before being relieved by Raycroft, who surrendered four goals on just 11 shots.

"After the first, I thought we had a chance to win the game still," Toskala said. "But after the break, I don't know what happened because we didn't show up."

"I won't forget about this one soon," Maple Leafs coach Paul Maurice said.

Brett McLean had a goal and four assists while Murphy also set up two tallies for the Panthers. The eight-goal difference was the largest margin of victory in franchise history.

"The real positive is, we played our best hockey of the season in the last two periods," McLean said.