More Overtime Success for Florida

As Mike Hough wheeled around the faceoff circle to corral a rebound, he already knew what he would do once he got into shooting position.

“I knew all I had to do was get it in the air because I knew the second shot would be open,” Hough said in describing his goal in the second overtime that gave the Florida Panthers a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday and a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.

The Panthers’ scouting report on Flyer goalie Ron Hextall is that he isn’t particularly quick in getting back to his feet once he’s gone to the ice to make a save.

Hextall went down to knock away a shot by Jody Hull, leaving him on the ice and out away from the net. Hough gathered the rebound and calmly slapped the puck into the top half of the net.

“We know Ron is a challenging goalie,” Hough said. “We knew the second shot had to be in the air, but that’s easier said than done.”

Hough’s goal at 8:05 of the second overtime gave the Panthers their second consecutive overtime victory and dealt the Flyers their fourth overtime playoff loss in four tries. Philadelphia must win Game 6 in Florida Tuesday to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive.

“I don’t think we’ve played to our full potential in the playoffs yet,” said Flyer Coach Terry Murray. “The effort is there, we just haven’t had that in-synch type of game that you would like to have where you go out and generate stuff shift after shift after shift.”

If the effort was there, it wasn’t discernable in the two overtimes.

The winning goal seemed inevitable; the Panthers buzzed around the Philadelphia end for most of the second overtime, outshooting the Flyers, 5-1. Florida outshot the Flyers, 12-4, in the first overtime and had several chances to win.