• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Boynton tallies, Vokoun solid as Panthers top Islanders

Oct 19, 2008 - 3:56 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- Rick DiPietro's return did nothing to help spark the New York Islanders.

Defenseman Nick Boynton scored for the second time in as many games and Tomas Vokoun stopped 31 shots to record his first shutout of the season as the Florida Panthers notched a 2-0 victory over the Islanders on Saturday.

Cory Stillman also tallied for Florida, which rebounded from an embarrassing 6-2 loss to a shorthanded Minnesota team on Thursday. Vokoun stopped 12 shots in both the first and second periods and seven in the third for his 26th career blanking.

It was a 180-degree turn for Vokoun, who was pulled after two periods on Thursday.

"It was a good performance, especially after that game (against Minnesota) the other night," Vokoun said. "I wasn't satisfied with that result and came out tonight better focused."

"It was nice to follow up with probably what was our worst effort of the year with maybe our best," Florida coach Peter DeBoer said. "It was really important (to bounce back). The guys responded in the right way."

While Vokoun was on his game, DiPietro was rusty in his first start of the season. The franchise goaltender sat on the bench the first four games while recovering from offseason knee and hip surgeries.

Joey MacDonald went 2-2-0 with a 3.50 goals-against average in his place.

"It's tough to take much positive out of it," DiPietro said. "I played decent, and there are things I can build on. It was good to be in there and seeing live action again."

DiPietro made some solid saves, including a stop on Radek Dvorak on a breakaway in the second period, but overall did not play like the netminder who received a record 15-year, $67.5 million contract in 2006.

Still, his return did not energize the Islanders, who have scored one goal or less in each of their three losses.

"He played well enough for us to win," New York's Doug Weight said. "The onus is on us in this room to get that accountability going."

"Right now, we're too one-dimensional," Islanders first-year coach Scott Gordon said. "You can't point to anything going well. We haven't had a lot of consistency."

Florida, which swept the season series in 2007-08, needed only 24 seconds to get the first meeting of this campaign off to a positive start. Boynton grabbed a rebound near the top of the right faceoff circle and blasted a shot into the far corner of the net for the early advantage.

The 27-year-old DiPietro made several nice saves to keep the deficit at one, but Stillman scored a power-play goal at 8:58 of the second to double the advantage.

Nathan Horton took a pass in the slot and sent the puck to Stillman, who ripped a wrister from the bottom of the left circle past DiPietro and into the top left corner.

"Everyone contributed," Stillman said. "That's the way we have to play night in and night out."

Stillman almost came through with his second goal three minutes into the third, but DiPietro robbed him with an outstretched glove save on a shot from point-blank range.

DiPietro stopped 34 shots for New York, which went 0-for-2 on the power play. Meanwhile, Florida was 1-for-6 with the man advantage.

"Their goalie made some big saves out there tonight," DeBoer said. "He kept them in the game."