Panthers Pre-Season Starts 1-1

The Pre-Season didn't start very good for the Florida Panthers When they hosted the Nashville Predators.

Florida started rookie goalie Donald Choukalos and he was chased out of the net at 19:41 of the first period after letting in his 5th goal in 10 shots. Choukalos was replaced by veteran back-up Milan Hnilicka.

Hnilicka stopped 11 of 13 but the damage was already done and the Predators handled the Panthers easily 6-0.

The Panthers second game of the Pre-Season was in Atlanta and Florida decided to do some thrashing of their own.

Floridas power play was on fire going 5-10 and the Panthers outshot the Thrasher 41-16. The first period saw the Panthers score 5 times and outshoot Atlanta 15-3. It was also the Owen Nolan show as he assisted on two power play goals and scored the 4th goal of the period for three points in the period. Then the Petr Bondra show started at the end of the first when he scored his first of the pre-season at 16:28. Sean Hill, Patrik Stefan and Yanick Lehoux also scored in the first.

The second period started with the Thrashers scoring at 6:43 before the Bondra show started in the second. The Panthers scored 5 more times in the second starting with Mike Rathje with Bondra and Johnsson assisting. Stephen Weiss scored his first of 2 power play goals in the period at 15:32.

The Panthers then scored 3 goals in just over a minute starting at 18:35 by Mike Cirillo. Then Bondra scored his second of the game and his first power play goal at 19:28. Petr then assisted on Weiss's second power play goal of the game :10 seconds later taking the Panthers into the dressing room with a dominating 10-1 lead and outshooting the Thrashers 32-7.

The third period was the Thrashers best but it was a case of way too little ....way tooo late...the shots in the period were even at 9 and Atlanta's Ryan Steeves scored his second of the pre-season at 13:19 making the final 10-2 for Florida.

The Panthers now travel to New Jersey later today to play the Devils.