OTTAWA -- The Ottawa Senators need more than stern words to win games. Dan Fouts Womens Jersey . Ottawa was expected to pick up its game after general manager Bryan Murray and coach Paul MacLean addressed the team following a loss to New Jersey on Wednesday. But on Thursday the Senators came undone with a poor third period and a late collapse that ended in a 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers. Tom Gilbert and Tomas Kopecky each scored in the final three minutes as the Panthers won their fifth straight game and seventh in their past eight. "I thought we had a good response from (Wednesday) nights game," MacLean said. "I liked the start of the game. We played (Wednesday) and they were sitting here waiting for us so we expected they would carry it a little bit until we got our legs. The second period I thought we wasted some of our energy and that fatigue didnt help us in the third." Gilbert beat Senators netminder Craig Anderson with a one-timer on a pass from Tomas Fleischmann at 17:28 of the third period with only two seconds remaining on a high-sticking penalty to Senators forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau. One minute later, with the Senators on a power play, Erik Karlsson fell in the Panthers zone allowing Kopecky to break out 2-on-1. He elected to shoot and beat Anderson at 18:19 with the insurance goal. Jimmy Hayes, in the first period, and Aleksander Barkov, in the second, also scored for the Panthers (14-17-50), who got a 32-save performance from Scott Clemmensen. "It was a good effort by everyone and a good road game for us," Clemmensen said. "We had a game plan and we stuck with it. This team is playing with a lot of confidence right now. We went down in the first but we stuck to it and believed in the game plan and thats probably the biggest difference between now and the beginning of the year." At the beginning of the year the Panthers won just three of their first 16 games and it cost head coach Kevin Dineen his job. Peter Horachek took over and his first game at the helm was a 3-2 loss in Ottawa on Nov. 9. Coincidentally that was the last time Ottawa had won consecutive games. "At that point I was just opening the doors," Horachek said of that first game. "I was just telling them how I feel the team should play and I think they wanted to play hard with a new coach. The structure and the confidence wasnt there and now the guys know they are capable of winning in whatever building they are in. We have to play our game and not bend around and see how other teams are going to play." Chris Neil and Jason Spezza scored for the Senators (14-17-6), who have now lost two straight and three of their past four. "We just didnt do enough to win. We got too passive and found a way to lose," Spezza said. "Its clear were feeling pressure now and were feeling the heat. Were trying to win hockey games and the effort is there but we dont execute and we dont play loose enough with the puck and were making mistakes at the end. Thats the position weve got ourselves in and we have to find a way to get out because no one is going to give us any help." Both teams took turns taking and giving away the lead through the first two periods, starting with the Panthers. Hayes opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season as he beat Anderson from the right hash mark at 5:39 of the first period. After a review to see if the puck was kicked in, Neil was credited with the tying goal at 9:17 of the period. Clarke MacArthur took the original shot but after Clemmensen made the save the puck bounced in of Neils skate for his fifth goal of the season. The Senators took the lead in the final minute of the period when Spezza made a sensational play, first getting the puck around Panthers defenceman Dylan Olsen at the face-off circle then beating Clemmensen high and on the short side with very little space. It was Spezzas 11th goal of the season and first in his past 13 games. Barkov tied the game for the Panthers at 17:11 of the second period with his sixth of the season when he redirected Gilberts shot past Anderson. The Senators were also forced to play the final two periods without forward Mika Zibanejad who left after only five shifts and 2:38 of ice time with an upper-body injury. Notes- Defencemen Patrick Wiercioch and Eric Cryba, along with forward Cory Conacher were scratches for the Senators. Defenceman Mike Mottau and forward Scott Gomez sat for the Panthers ... The Ottawa Senators have allowed 42 first-period goals this season, the most in the NHL. Going into Thursday, the Senators had the most penalty minutes in the league with 164 and were only 24th with a 78.9 per cent efficiency on the penalty kill. Antonio Gates Jersey .com) - Ryan Johansens creative moves and hometown appeal highlighted Team Folignos successful night at the NHL All- Star Skills Competition. Kellen Winslow Womens Jersey . On Sunday, head coach Patrick Roy said the teams leading scorer will skate at Mondays morning practice and the club will make a decision on his status for Game 6 at that point. http://www.chargersfansofficial.com/t-shirts/ . made a diving catch in left field for the final out in a 1-0 victory over the Miami Marlins in a regular-season finale Sunday. Zimmermann (14-5) allowed only two baserunners, finishing with 10 strikeouts and one walk in the fifth no-hitter in the majors this year.NEW YORK - The basketball gods have spoken, with an assist from Jason Kidd. The Toronto Raptors will open their first playoff series in six years at home to the Brooklyn Nets at 12:30 PM et Saturday afternoon. The Raptors learned their fate early in the second half of Wednesdays season final - a 95-92 loss to the Knicks - when Chicago fell to Charlotte in overtime, assuring Toronto would finish with the third seed in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn had been red-hot, winning 33 of 46 games - the second best record in the East since Jan. 1 - until they dropped four of the last five contests, conceding a division title to the Raptors and ultimately falling to sixth place. Their last stand in Cleveland suggests that the late-season collapse, or at least the latter half of it, may not have been an accident. Kidds Nets squandered a couple of opportunities to lock up the fifth seed, setting up a likely matchup with the surging Bulls, on the final two nights of the campaign. On Wednesday evening, with four teams jockeying for playoff seeding, the Nets rookie head coach opted to sit all five of his starters, suiting up only seven players in a winnable game against the lowly Cavaliers. They would go on to lose by 29. "In my experience, youve got to be careful what you wish for," Dwane Casey cautioned ahead of Wednesdays finale. "You think you want to play a certain team then you start preparing for them and say, wow that teams pretty good. Then youve got a dogfight. I think the best way to approach it is let the basketball gods decide." Faced with a similar decision, Casey - who was an assistant in Dallas when he and Kidd won a championship together in 2011 - chose to play his stars against the Knicks and compete to win. Thats just one of the factors that separate these two teams, that creates a trace of animosity going into this weekends first-round matchup. Whether they care to admit to it or not, the Nets took their foot off the gas in the hope of maximizing the odds of facing an inexperienced Raptors team. Whether Torontos players or coaches care to admit it, thats a slap in the face, or at least it should be. Do they feel slighted? "No, man," Lowry responded, after the game. "They rested their players. Thats what they did." They shouldnt need added motivation, Casey wisely posted out. The Raptors have been underestimated and theyre about to be again. They will be lost in a sea of publicity surrounding the compelling storylines of a big market team with a payroll exceeding $100 million. "Weve played all season as the underdog, as the small guy trying to come up, whatever you want to call it," said DeMar DeRozan, who is one of three Raptors starters slated to make his postseason debut Saturday. "We always play with a chip on our shoulder and we understand going into the playoffs, we havent done nothing. We havent made it to the playoffs in six years. So weve got to go in there with a chip on our shoulder and understand its going to be a dog fight every single game, just like the season was." Their starting lineup goes into the series with 24 games of playoff experience to Brooklyns 399. The average age of the Nets first unit - complete with veterans and future hall of famers - is eight years older than Torontos. Its a clash of old and young, the battle-tested versus the unproven soldiers. "Experience is one thing but youve got to go play," said Casey, who is also venturing into uncharted waters, his first postseason as a head coach. "You have to go out and compete, its why they play the games. Our guys are going to be ready." "Theyve got a lot of older veterans that have been in the league 10-plus years so thats an advantage that we have," DeRozan said. "We understand that theyre experienced and everything but hey, who isnt? Once you come in this league youre going against players all season that are experienced in some way. LaDainian Tomlinson Youth Jersey. You just have to find a way to win." The Raptors and Nets split a four-game season series, with each team winning one on the road. Perhaps it was fate. In a redditt AMA chat last month, Terrence Ross identified the Nets as a preferred playoff matchup, to which Brooklyns Andray Blatche took issue and responded, "Ross asked for this, so theyve got to back up their words." These teams faced off in the 2007 playoffs - Toronto the third seed, the Nets, then in New Jersey, the sixth - after the Raptors won their first and only other division title. It was the first postseason experience for the likes of Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker, among others. That inexperience against a veteran Nets team - led by Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson - proved costly, as inexperience tends to be in the playoffs. This Raptors team believes theyre different, that they have something special. They may be right. As most observers - both devoted and casual alike - are aware and will continue to be force-fed ad nauseam ahead of their first postseason game since 2008, the Raptors rapid return to relevance in the East was unexpected. Generous prognosticators billed them as a conference wild card, a fringe playoff team, at best. Division winner? No chance. Not with a pair of entitled New York-area giants and their gargantuan payrolls occupying the Atlantic. Internally, expectations were being tempered, justifiably so. After years of false promises, the word "playoffs" was quickly dismissed in place of a new goal; "growth". They were indeed a wild card in the East. A newly structured front office, an expiring head coach and starting point guard, an $18 million experiment inherited from the previous regime. "We didnt go into the season thinking we were going to be division winners," Casey admitted. "That was our goal but we knew that was going to be a lofty goal. We always go in trying to swing for the fences. Once the trade happened, no one knew. The guys kept working, kept working, kept working and [it] kind of came together." The Raptors were 6-12 before that fabled evening in Los Angeles, the night Rudy Gay was shipped to Sacramento and the fortunes of a long-suffering franchise began to turn. From that point on they would finish the season with a record of 42-22, tops in the East. Some will shrug them off as the poster team of a historically weak Eastern Conference and at one point, early in the season, that may have been the case. However, they made it here on their own merit. Theyre one just four teams, in either conference, to finish in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Their 22 road wins, a franchise record, tied Miami and Washington for the best mark in the East and they finished with 16-14 against the superior Western Conference. Their individual and collective accomplishments seem countless. Their starting five has won more games than any other in team history, each player putting up career highs in minutes logged and scoring. On Monday they hung their second division championship banner and set a new franchise mark in wins. Six months ago that would have been more than enough. Now, its an appetizer. Theyve tasted success and they want more. No one is satisfied. "When I first got here that was one of my biggest goals, to get this team back to the playoffs," said Kyle Lowry. "Im happy to be there but Im not satisfied. I want to go out there, I want to make some noise and show that were really a good team." Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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