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Horton, Vokoun propel Panthers past Lightning

Nov 19, 2008 - 4:28 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Nathan Horton scored in the second round of the shootout and Tomas Vokoun stopped all three attempts as the Florida Panthers posted a 4-3 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in a battle of Southeast Division rivals.

Defenseman Bryan McCabe recorded two goals and an assist and David Booth also tallied in regulation for Florida, which improved to 3-6-1 in its last 10 games.

Vokoun finished with 49 saves - including 20 in the second period.

"We've got to be tighter, but we won the game," Vokoun said. "We've been a fragile team. We have some tough times and I think the win is as important as anything in this game. They don't ask how, you know? Two weeks from now, nobody's going to remember, so we've got to learn from the mistakes we made this game and play better next game."

"We needed a night from him like that," Florida coach Peter DeBoer said. "Our goalie has to be a star on the road, especially in games like this and he delivered."

Defenseman Steve Eminger scored for the first time in 63 games and also set up goals by Radim Vrbata and Evgeny Artyukhin for Tampa Bay, which remains winless in two games under new coach Rick Tocchet and 0-3-2 in its last five overall.

"It's baby steps. The worst thing we can do is get frustrated and start going on our own program," Tocchet said. "That's our job as a coaching staff to make sure that these guys tomorrow come in and get a good sweat and get them out there and feel good about themselves.

"We just have been really concentrating on making sure they know what's going on. They know when they hit the ice, what we want them to do."

Tocchet replaced Barry Melrose, who was fired on Friday after the Lightning struggled to a 5-7-4 record in 16 games this season.

McCabe opened the scoring 7:50 into the first period after his wrist shot in the high slot sailed past Smith.

After Booth doubled the advantage with 17 seconds remaining in the session, McCabe netted his second goal of the game after deflecting Horton's shot for a power-play tally at 7:48 of the second period.

All three of McCabe's goals this season have come at the expense of the Lightning.

"We got some great goaltending (and) we were lucky," McCabe said. "The score didn't quite dictate how we played. We were up 3-0, but they were out-shooting us and out-chancing us."

"Obviously it's one of those nights where you're happy with the result, but there's a lot of areas we can improve on," Florida's Brett McLean said.

Vrbata put the Lightning on the scoreboard with 5:18 remaining in the session with his first goal of the season. Steven Stamkos, the top overall pick in the June draft, was credited with an assist.

"When you're in a little bit of a funk and you're starting to create chances, that's good," Stamkos said. "I got the assist there and got things rolling with the first goal. I thought we dominated them tonight. We outshot them (52-36) and outplayed them in their end. It's just one of those nights where you're not winning - those games seem to slip by and we need to find a way to change that."

Artyukhin halved the deficit just 3:44 into the third period and Eminger scored the third consecutive Tampa Bay goal with 2:51 remaining in the session to knot the score and force overtime.

"It's tough when you get down 3-0, you know?" Smith said. "Hats off to the guys, they battled through the whole game and a couple saves here and there and it could have been a different story. It would have been for sure."