Panthers top Oilers in shootout

By Steve Gorten | SunSentinel.com

12:01 AM EDT, September 25, 2008

EDMONTON, ALBERTA - Bryan McCabe and Chris Beckford-Tseu combined to give the Panthers a 3-2 shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Arena Wednesday night.

In the fifth round of the shootout, McCabe beat Oilers goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers. Then Beckford-Tseu, who started and played the whole game when coach Peter DeBoer decided to rest Tomas Vokoun, stopped Dustin Penner's shot for the win.

Nathan Horton was the Panthers' first player in the shootout and scored top shelf against goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers. Ales Hemsky went first for the Oilers and also scored against Beckford-Tseu.

Then the Panthers' Ville Peltonen was stopped and the Oilers' Rob Schremp scored. Cory Stillman kept the Panthers alive by scoring on his shootout shot. Then the Oilers' Shawn Horcoff missed to send it to a fourth round, in which Richard Zednik came up empty for the Panthers and Fernando Pisani did the same for the Oilers.

The Panthers took the lead just 1:49 into the game as Janis Sprukts scored on a shot from low in the left circle. Stefan Meyer assisted on the goal.

The Oilers responded, however, with 40.3 seconds left in the first period. With Brady Calla and Noah Welch in the penalty box, Horcoff scored to tie the game.

The Panthers, who outshot the Oilers 16-4 in the first period, seized the lead again at 8:03 of the second as Shawn Matthias stuck in a rebound past Drouin-Deslauriers. Ville Peltonen and Kenndal McArdle assisted on the goal.

Edmonton pulled even at 12:03 of the second period when Liam Reddox scored on a power play.

The Oilers received a man advantage just 37 seconds into overtime when Richard Zednik was sent off for hooking. They didn't capitalize. Instead, Sheldon Souray got into it with Panthers defenseman Keith Ballard. Souray received two minutes for instigating, five for fighting, a 10-misconduct and a game misconduct for being the aggressor.

The entire game was testy with several altercations between players from both teams. The Panthers' Mike Duco and Oilers' Theo Peckham fought twice. Their first came 4:18 into the game.

The Panthers had two power plays in overtime, but came up empty and are now 0-for-14 on power plays in two preseason games.

Staff Writer Steve Gorten can be reached at sgorten@sunsentinel.com