New York, NY (Sports Network) - Jozef Stumpel scored a pair of goals as the
Florida Panthers stopped a four-game losing streak at Madison Square Garden,
topping the New York Rangers, 4-2.
Gregory Campbell and Juraj Kolnik also scored for the Panthers, who have split
their last four games. Jay Bouwmeester added a pair of assists, and Ed Belfour
blocked 35 shots.
"We definitely needed a win," said Belfour. "Hopefully it'll be a building
block for us. We're playing hard."
Petr Prucha and Martin Straka scored for the Rangers, who have also split
their last four games but have dropped five of seven. Henrik Lundqvist stopped
20 shots.
"They were able to take advantage of our mistakes," said Lundqvist. "If felt
like they didn't have to work for their goals. It was just a really tough
loss."
Stumpel put the Panthers on the board 8:52 into the first with a wrister on
the power play.
The Rangers tied the score, 1-1, 3:34 into the second as Jaromir Jagr skated
the length of the ice and passed it to Brendan Shanahan, who missed but Prucha
got the rebound and scored on a snap shot stick side just a second after a
two-man advantage ended.
Just 36 seconds later, the Panthers regained the lead, 2-1, as Campbell scored
a tip-in on the glove side.
Florida started to pull away when Kolnik scored a wrister unassisted 6:32 into
the third, after faking out Lundqvist.
"It felt good to finally play 60 minutes," said Kolnik. "The last couple games
we only played 20 or 30 minutes."
Straka followed with a wrister, as he reached out and hung the puck just
under Belfour's outstretched stick 13:10 into the third for a one-goal Florida
lead.
Stumpel put the game away when he knocked the puck down mid-air and wristed it
in stick side with about 3 1/2 minutes left.
Florida finished 1-for-2 on the power play, while New York was 1-for-6.
