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Slight slip Florida falls to Chicago, slides out of first-place tie
Posted: Saturday March 11, 2000 11:22 PM
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- Bob Probert is very used to the penalty box. Getting on the offensive side of the score sheet is not as familiar. Probert became the sixth NHL player to go over 3,000 career penalty minutes and scored for the first time since Dec. 23 on Saturday night and Boris Mironov had a short-handed goal, leading the Chicago Blackhawks to a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. The last-place Blackhawks swept the two-game season series and knocked the Panthers out of first place. "We certainly played like we were the first-place team," said Probert, who has 3,002 penalty minutes in 15 seasons. "We stuck to our game plan and played disciplined hockey." Probert scored his second goal -- first in 32 games -- just 55 seconds in to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead. "It's been a while," Probert said. "It's nice to score on the first shift." Anders Eriksson also scored and Jocelyn Thibault had 22 saves to give Chicago its first win in the third game of a five-game road trip. "All 20 players contributed on offense and defense," associate coach Lorne Molleken said. "It's a matter of preparing physically and mentally. I thought our guys wanted it more than Florida." The Panthers, 1-5-1 in their past seven home games, fell two points behind Washington into second place in the Southeast Division. "We quite simply have to stop making the stupid mistakes that we've been making for the past month," Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "Every player in that room better jump back on board and start helping this hockey club play as a team." Josef Marha finished off a 2-on-1 break by slipping the puck past Mike Vernon 12:23 in to give Chicago a 2-1 lead. Blair Atcheynum set Marha up for his seventh goal. Mironov drilled home a long slap shot to make it 3-1. Alexei Zhamnov received his 300th career assist on Chicago's ninth short-handed goal of the season. Eriksson snapped a 52-game streak with a slap shot just inside the blue line that gave Chicago a 4-1 advantage at 11:37 of the second. It was also Eriksson's second goal. Ray Whitney split two defensemen before nudging the puck through Thibault's pads for his 25th goal, cutting Chicago's lead to 4-2 with 58 seconds left in the second. Pavel Bure got an assist as did rookie Brad Ference, who notched his first NHL point in his second game. "By that time we were mentally out of it," Whitney said. "Right now, we are pretty fragile." Michael Nylander's 19th goal over a prone Vernon sealed the victory with 4:04 remaining. Chicago outshot Florida 15-3 in the third. The Panthers, coming off a rugged 4-3 victory in Tampa Bay Saturday, fell to 11-6-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. Michal Grosek, acquired Friday from Buffalo, was unable to make his Blackhawks' debut because his equipment got lost en route to Miami.
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