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Vokoun, Panthers shut out Blues

Dec 14, 2007 - 6:06 AM By Tom James PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Tomas Vokoun continues to make post-lockout life miserable for the St. Louis Blues.

Vokoun turned aside all 33 shots he faced for his 24th career shutout and Stephen Weiss scored his fifth goal of the season to lead the Florida Panthers to a 1-0 win over the Blues on Thursday.

Nathan Horton and defenseman Bryan Allen notched the assists on Weiss' goal for the Panthers, whose only previous win here came on November 23, 1996, and only other point was earned in a scoreless tie on February 18, 1999.

Vokoun, who has been victorious all seven times he has faced St. Louis since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, stymied the Blues throughout the contest, helping the Panthers successfully extinguish seven power-play opportunities. It was the third shutout of the season for the Czech goaltender and second in three games.

The Blues' best chance came with 6:30 left in the second, when Vokoun reached back with his stick to stop Paul Kariya's stuff attempt of an end-board rebound following rookie defenseman Erik Johnson's blast from the blue line.

"He's our best player, and he has been our best player for a while," Weiss said. "He made a lot of saves, especially against their power play in the second period, and kept us in the game."

Blues coach Andy Murray was not so conciliatory regarding the failures of his man-advantage unit, which failed during a lengthy power play in the third created by a double-minor for high-sticking by Horton.

"We have guys out there who are expected to execute on the power play, and they haven't performed," Murray said.

Weiss did his part 70 seconds into the middle period, when he took the rebound of Horton's shot from along the right wing boards and beat netminder Manny Legace at the near goalpost.

"We were buzzing around in their zone," Weiss said. "Nathan got the puck, turned around and did something. All of a sudden, I had an open net."

It was the only goal allowed by Legace, who made 24 saves in his first start since November 30. The goalie had been sidelined with a right knee injury.

"The knee felt all right tonight, but this game sure didn't," Legace said. "And, we ran into a hot goaltender."

"Both goaltenders were outstanding," Florida coach Jacques Martin said. "Our penalty-killers did a great job, and Tomas again was outstanding. It was a great performance."

The victory came two days after Vokoun yielded a game-tying goal to Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla with 10 seconds remaining in the contest, the fourth last-minute tally to tie or win a game yielded by Florida this season. The Panthers went on to lose that one, 2-1, in a shootout.

This time, his defense blocked two shots by Kariya in the final 30 seconds after Ville Peltonen shot wide at an empty net from point-blank range. And Vokoun is well aware that, against the current group of Blues, quality play from his blue-liners is crucial.

"We know that any team Andy Murray coached over the years, they play defensive hockey. It's not going to be a 6-5 game," Vokoun said. "Plus, we have a little bit of trouble scoring right now. If we want to win games, we have to play defense."