SUNRISE—After his teammates stunned the red-hot Blackhawks with three first-period goals, goalie Tomas Vokoun did the rest for the Florida Panthers.Vokoun made 37 saves, including 27 over the last two periods, to help the Panthers hold on for a 3-2 victory that snapped the defending Stanley Cup champions’ eight-game winning streak.The victory also snapped Florida’s season-high five-game losing streak and gave Panthers coach Pete DeBoer his 100th NHL win.The game was the first between the teams since Dale Tallon, who spent 33 years in the Blackhawks organization and acquired many of the players who helped win the Stanley Cup last June, was hired as GM of the Panthers.David Booth, Clay Wilson and Marty Reasoner scored first-period goals to give Florida a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Vokoun’s 37 saves helped him improve to 8-3 in his last 11 starts against the Hawks.Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks, who hadn’t lost since a 4-3 setback against Columbus on Feb. 18. Their winning streak was the longest active run in the league and the second-longest this season.Corey Crawford made his 12th consecutive start in goal for the Blackhawks, but was pulled after the first period. Crawford, who was looking to tie Glenn Hall’s franchise record of nine consecutive victories, stopped five of eight shots.Marty Turco made seven saves in relief of Crawford.The Blackhawks outshot Florida 29-7 over the last two periods, 39-15 for the game.The 15 shots represented a season low for the Panthers, who recorded 17 shots in a 4-3 victory against the Rangers on Jan. 25.Booth opened the scoring at 4:06 after a turnover at the Chicago blue line. After stealing the puck, Michal Repik skated in and took a slap shot and Booth put in the rebound.Wilson, playing in only his fourth NHL game this season, made it 2-0 at 9:44. After Niclas Bergfors’ shot was blocked, Wilson fired a wrist shot that deflected off Ryan Johnson.Reasoner scored with only 6.9 seconds left in the period when he grabbed a loose puck in the high slot and fired a wrist shot over Crawford’s glove hand.Kane got the Hawks on the scoreboard at 11:03 of the second when he tapped in Brian Campbell’s pass from behind the net.Hossa made it 3-2 at 13:48 with his 30th goal in 46 career games against Florida. He one-timed Dave Bolland’s pass and beat Vokoun from near the left faceoff dot.
“It was all about the first period and the start of the game,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “They outworked us. We had lazy habits and probably extended our shifts and the result is three goals. They were all preventable goals.If you’re looking for an easy game, you’re not going to find it in this league.”
NOTES—Jonathan Toews’ nine-game point streak, the longest active streak in the NHL, was snapped. Hossa now has the longest active streak after extending it to eight games….The Blackhawks fell one game short of tying the franchise record of nine consecutive victories, set in December 2008….Duncan Keith was in the lineup after missing the last 15 minutes of Saturday night’s game in Toronto after being hit by a shot on his right hand.