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Stumpel, Gelinas each score twice as Panthers beat Capitals

Feb 2, 2007 - 6:19 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- Jozef Stumpel and Martin Gelinas were the beginning and the end for the Florida Panthers.

Stumpel opened the scoring with the first of his two goals and Gelinas capped it with his second of the game as the Panthers posted a 6-3 triumph over the Washington Capitals.

Juraj Kolnik had a goal and an assist and Ville Peltonen also tallied for Florida, which won its third straight meeting with Washington.

It took Stumpel just 77 seconds to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead, and Gelinas doubled it with 5:26 left in the first period.

"This game was a must win," Stumpel said. "We came out strong and played a good game right from the start."

"For whatever reason, they just have our number right now," Capitals goaltender Olaf Kolzig said. "We had a pretty good game plan, and I thought we played pretty well in the first period - we didn't deserve to be down 2-0."

After Peltonen made it 3-1 at 5:41 of the second, Stumpel stretched the lead during a 5-on-3 power play by knocking a rebound past Kolzig, who made a nifty save on the initial shot but could not control the puck.

"We won the special teams part of the game with three power-play goals," Panthers coach Jacques Martin said. "We got a big performance out of people like Jozef Stumpel. His line was really excellent."

Washington drew within 5-3 on goals by the All-Star Alex Ovechkin at 2:32 of the third and Dainius Zubrus with 8:02 remaining. Ovechkin's tally was his league-leading 33rd of the season and also extended the reigning Calder Trophy winner's points streak to a career-high 13 games.

But Gelinas deflected Stephen Weiss' shot between the pads of Kolzig with 4 1/2 minutes to go, sealing the victory.

"I knew Weiss was going to shoot it, and I was just hoping it was going to come my way," Gelinas said.

Ed Belfour stopped 27 shots for the Panthers, who have won three of their last four.

Captain Chris Clark had a goal and an assist and Zubrus set up two tallies for the Capitals, who have lost two in a row and four of five.

"Every time we play these guys, we seem to get off to a bad start," Capitals defenseman Jamie Heward said. "They capitalize on a few chances early and put us back on our heels. Once you do that, you lose your flow of the game and it takes a while to get that back."