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Anderson, Panthers hold off Capitals

Dec 3, 2008 - 5:06 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Ville Peltonen, Radek Dvorak and Gregory Campbell each recorded a goal and an assist as the Florida Panthers handed the Washington Capitals their first home regulation loss of the season, 5-3, on Tuesday.

The trio has produced six goals and eight assists over the Panthers' last three games.

Defensemen Jay Bouwmeester and Bryan McCabe also scored for Florida and Craig Anderson followed up his second shutout of the season with 23 saves. The veteran goaltender allowed one goal over the first 56 minutes of this one before yielding a pair late in the third period.

"I thought he was really good," Panthers coach Peter DeBoer said of Anderson. "He made a couple of huge saves on the power play early in the third period to keep us in the lead."

Nicklas Backstrom, Viktor Kozlov and Tomas Fleischmann notched a goal and an assist apiece for Washington, which had gone 9-0-1 in its first 10 home games.

The Capitals grabbed a 1-0 lead on Backstrom's goal with 4:03 left in the first period, but the Panthers scored three unanswered tallies in the second session and Dvorak added his third of the season at 4:45 of the third to push the lead to 4-1.

"We've got confidence," Florida's Stephen Weiss said. "It's amazing what that will do to you (when the) puck starts going in the net. We're playing well. All 20 guys are going every night, and that's what we need to compete and win games. Everything's clicking. We're staying out of the box and getting key goals at key times."

"They're a great transition team and they can skate," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "The next thing you know, they got three quick ones by us and we're having a devil of a time."

The Capitals looked like they did not know what hit them.

"We came out like everybody thought this would be an easy game," Backstrom said. "We didn't compete."

Peltonen's backhander from the left faceoff circle at 6:19 of the middle period forged a 1-1 tie, and Bouwmeester was credited with a goal without touching the puck just 69 seconds later.

Capitals center David Steckel attempted to clear the puck, but it hit rookie defenseman Karl Alzner's skate and bounced past goaltender Jose Theodore for a power-play goal and 2-1 edge.

For Bouwmeester, who was the last member of the Panthers to touch the puck, it was his third tally of the campaign.

"We put in a lot of work tonight and had success," said Bouwmeester, who has notched 11 points in his last 10 games.

The Capitals, however, refused to go away.

After McCabe and Dvorak scored to give Florida a three-goal bulge, Kozlov's wrist shot from the right circle on the fly with 3:49 remaining in the third pulled Washington within 4-2.

"The Kozlov shot was a fantastic shot," DeBoer said. "Nothing we could do on that. We just had to regroup."

Six seconds after Bouwmeester drew an interference penalty, Fleischmann tallied on the power play with 2:58 to go, making it a one-goal game.

"This is a team in the past that hasn't held leads really well," DeBoer said. "It's a work in progress, but I think we've done a great job of getting better at that."

Just 10 seconds after Theodore was pulled for an extra attacker, Campbell scored an empty-netter with exactly a minute remaining for the final margin.

"We have to wake up earlier than we did this game," said Backstrom, who had his third multi-point effort of the season. "We have to be ready to play from the beginning, and that's what we didn't do."

"Nothing really went our way, but we didn't work for our opportunities," Washington defenseman Tyler Sloan said. "We didn't get any puck bounces because we didn't work for them. It's unacceptable for the first game of the week, and a big week for us, a home game. It's just unacceptable."