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Weiss propels Panthers past Senators

Dec 9, 2008 - 4:30 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Stephen Weiss scored with 9.1 seconds remaining in overtime as the Florida Panthers recorded a 4-3 triumph over the Ottawa Senators on Monday.

Defensemen Nick Boynton and Jay Bouwmeester scored and rookie Michal Repik netted his first NHL goal for Florida, which improved to 4-1-0 in its last five games.

Craig Anderson turned aside 35 shots - including 15 in the third period - for the Panthers.

"(Anderson) was great," Florida first-year coach Peter DeBoer said. "In the third period and overtime, he just stepped his game up a whole level from the first two periods and made some important saves and some timely saves to keep us in the game."

Dany Heatley and Chris Kelly scored and Jason Spezza notched his fifth goal in three games for Ottawa, which saw its four-game winning streak come to an end.

Making his 11th consecutive start, Alex Auld finished with 36 saves for the Senators.

In the waning moments of overtime, Weiss skated into the offensive zone and unleashed a shot which deflected off the stick of defenseman Chris Phillips and past Auld for his fourth goal of the season.

"All season long they've been telling me to shoot," Weiss said of his teammates. "I thought for a second about making a pass, but then I just tried to get it on net - and luckily it went in."

Ottawa claimed one-goal leads on three separate occasions, but Florida rallied to level the contest each time.

"It's a show of our character," Anderson said. "We got knocked down a few times, but we got up and battled back and we found a way to stay in the game. At the end of the night, it went our way."

"It's tough to lose like that, especially when you know you could have won it only moments earlier, but we had our chances and we should have been able to put it away," Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "Obviously, we let them back in the game every time we got the lead, and if you let a team hang around long enough, they'll come back to bite you - and that's what happened tonight."

With his team on the power play, Bouwmeester leveled the game at 3-3 after unleashing a shot from the slot which beat a screened Auld for his fourth goal of the season.

Heatley gave the Senators a brief 2-1 advantage just 2:32 into the second period, but Repik responded 80 seconds later to tie the contest.

"I just went to the net and (defenseman Keith Ballard) was able to get the puck to me and I put it in," Repik said. "I was happy to have my first goal, but more happy we won the game in the end."