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Booth propels Panthers past Blues

Mar 8, 2009 - 5:06 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- David Booth recorded a hat trick and an assist and Tomas Vokoun turned aside 24 shots in his 500th career start as the Florida Panthers posted a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

Nathan Horton and Radek Dvorak also scored for Florida, which improved to 3-1-0 in its last four contests.

"(Getting the hat trick) feels good," Booth said. "I think it's more important we got a win because it's so close in the Eastern Conference right now."

Panthers coach Peter DeBoer was thrilled with Booth's performance.

"We had a couple of timely goals tonight," DeBoer said. "(Booth's hat trick) was great; it was good to see David get rewarded. He's a hard worker and puts a lot of effort into (his play).

"He was in a little mini-slump there, and it was nice to see him break out tonight."

Vokoun became the 53rd goaltender to accomplish the feat and just the seventh active goalie to reach this milestone, joining Martin Brodeur, Curtis Joseph, Olaf Kolzig, Chris Osgood, Nikolai Khabibulin and Roberto Luongo.

"It's a nice milestone," Vokoun said. "I'm proud of it."

David Backes scored twice, Brad Boyes also tallied for St. Louis, which fell to 4-2-0 in its last six games.

"(Two goals) isn't the thing," Backes said. "We have no excuses tonight. We needed to have our jump and our desperation right from the drop of the puck and we didn't have it."

"I thought our effort was below the norm," St. Louis coach Andy Murray said.

Making his 16th consecutive start, Chris Mason turned aside 30 shots for the Blues.

"It was really weird; it was kind of an awkward," Mason said of playing against Vokoun.

"That's the first time we played against each other, so it was a little strange."

Booth, who leads the team with 24 goals, netted only one goal in his last 15 contests. On Saturday, the Detroit native scored once in each period, capping the hat trick with 2:26 remaining in the contest.

"It's funny because the last hat trick I had I was struggling up until that point too," Booth said. "You have to keep working hard; working things in practice and eventually they'll go in. When you play with great players, they'll find you."