Panthers Rally In the Third Period to Earn Split with the Nashville Predators

The Florida Panthers put on their rally caps in the third period of the nightcap of Monday's doubleheader to earn a split in the first NHL doubleheader in many years.

Ex-Predator Mike Santorelli and Tim Kennedy scored  back to back goals on goalie Atte Engrin 53 seconds apart midway through the third period to pull even and then go ahead to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead which ended up being the final score in the second game of the rare hockey twin bill.

The Preds jumped out to a two goal lead on goals by Teemu Laakso and Ryan Thang early in the opening period. Florida came back to tie the game 2-2 on goals by Eric Selleck and Jonathan Huberdeau.

Blake Geoffrion put the Preds back in the lead with a goal late in the second period. He also assisted on Thang's goal for a two point effort and was named the game's second star. Matt Halischuk had two assists for the evening.

Scott Clemmonson played the entire game for Florida, picking up the win and stopping 23 of 26 shots after a shakey start.

Anders Lindback was in goal for the Preds for two periods and stopped 13 of 15 Panther shots. Engren came on and played the final period and stopped 8 of 10 shots.

Nashville out shot the Panthers 26-25. Michael Latta tangled with Selleck in the second period in what was described as a punch filled bout.

Click on the game summary on the right to enlarge.

@rinkside provided this postegame video of a jubilant Jonathan Huberdeau who had two points in his first NHL level game.

Thanks again to George Richards of On Frozen Pond for Cover it Live updates and to Harvey Fialkov and @rinkside for Twitter updates.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass