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Olesz, Vokoun lead Panthers to second straight win

Nov 22, 2007 - 3:52 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Rostislav Olesz scored a pair of third-period goals and Tomas Vokoun continued his dominance of the Columbus Blue Jackets as the Florida Panthers cruised to a 5-2 victory on Wednesday.

Olesz also assisted on two goals and Vokoun stopped 34 shots for Florida, which has outscored its opponents, 9-5, en route to consecutive wins.

Two of the Panthers' three third-period goals came on the power-play.

"I think tonight we played much better as a team," Olesz said. "We were able to get traffic in front and the power play was good, as we scored lots of goals on the power play. It was big win for our club."

With the game tied at 2-2, Olesz scored the go-ahead tally on a rebound at 10:53 and Bouwmeester made it a two-goal game with a wrist shot from the right side with 6:59 remaining.

Olesz was then credited with goal after he deflected Gregory Campbell's shot from the right faceoff circle past Pascal Leclaire just 1:08 later to cap the scoring.

"We did a great job tonight on the power play," Florida coach Jacques Martin said. "We got some production from the back end. A goal from (Ruslan) Salei, a goal from (Bryan) Allen. We got people in front, and that's what it takes to score goals."

Vokoun entered the game 18-6-1 all-time against Columbus - with all of the wins coming as a member of the Nashville Predators. The 18 wins are the most against any team Vokoun has faced and the most wins by any goalie against Columbus.

The last time Columbus was able to beat Vokoun was 4-3 win in Columbus on January 28, 2006. A third-period offensive outburst allowed Florida to keep that streak going.

"I can't really tell you the reason why I have success against Columbus," Vokoun said. "We had some good runs against them with Nashville, I am sure it is not me personally, obviously I got some help from my teammates in Nashville. They are a very different team now."

"I think Tomas has been solid for us," Martin said. "Every night he has been there for our team. We have become a better team and I am sure that will help him become even better."

Rick Nash tied the game at 2-2 with his team-leading 15th goal with one second left in the second period. However, it was not enough to stop the Blue Jackets from dropping their third straight game.

Columbus took a 1-0 lead in the first on a power-play goal by Curtis Glencross with 3:13 left. Florida answered with a power-play tally as Salei scored on an assist from Olesz just 1:46 into the second.

Allen put Florida up 2-1 with 6:43 remaining in the second on a shot from the point.

Leclaire, who entered the game with a league-best 1.77 goals-against average, stopped 24 shots for Columbus.

"I've got to come up with a few more key saves. It's the story of the game on my side," LeClaire said.

"I thought we were really loose in our own end," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "This is the first time we had a lot of people who didn't bring it. We didn't compete at the level we needed to compete at for the first time at home in a long time."