By Craig Shultz
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer
ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- David Booth recorded a natural
hat trick and Craig Anderson finished with 44 saves as the
Florida Panthers halted a six-game slide with a 3-1 triumph over
the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Stephen Weiss and defenseman Jassen Cullimore notched two
assists apiece for Florida, which entered the contest 0-5-1 in
its last six games.
Corey Perry scored and Jean-Sebastien Giguere turned aside 23
shots for Anaheim, which dropped its second straight after
posting an 8-0-1 record in its previous nine games.
On Friday night, Mark Parrish of the Dallas Stars also recorded
a hat trick in a 5-2 victory over the Ducks.
"It was good, especially against a team like that," Booth said.
"We've been desperate to get a couple of wins. Craig played
great in net, the defense played good all the way out. The puck
just happened to go in off my stick.
"Now we have to go from here, we can't have anymore excuses. We
just have to show up every day and have fun. That was the theme
behind this game and that is what we did. It's hard - morale is
down when you lose six in a row."
Florida coach Peter DeBoer said the league's better teams seems
to bring out the best in his young squad.
"There was a lot of desperation and we seem to have brought that
against the best teams in the league." DeBoer said. "It is
almost a fear of being embarrassed. When we bring that type of
game, we're a pretty good team.
"I thought we were real tenacious and we won a lot of puck
battles and we got some timely goals. We got some big saves when
we needed them. ... That is the kind of game we have to bring to
the rink every night in order to compete."
After Perry opened the scoring 1:41 into the contest, Booth
backhanded a shot past Giguere exactly four minutes into the
first period.
"I was just putting the puck on net, and that's what you have to
do sometimes, just flip a puck and good things will happen."
Booth said. "It's funny because I was actually going to go to my
forehand, but then I just protected the puck and got it on with
the backhand and it went in."
The 23-year-old Booth then unleashed a slap shot over Giguere's
glove at 6:18 of the second and completed his natural hat trick
by wristing a shot from the right circle for a power-play goal
with 1:48 remaining in the period.
After netting 22 goals in 73 games in 2007-08, Booth now has
seven tallies in 14 games this season.
The Ducks enjoyed a 45-26 advantage in shots - including a 20-4
edge in the third period - but couldn't slip another puck past
Anderson.
"It was terrific effort by everyone tonight," Anderson said. "We
got some big goals from David Booth, some big blocked shots by
our defense, our forwards coming back hard on the back check
taking away time and space from their good players. The guys
just played their hearts out tonight. Credit to those guys
working as hard as they did to make sure we got the W."
"You have to give a lot of credit to Anderson," said Perry, who
scored on Anaheim's first shot of the game. "He stood on his
head and he was good with his rebounds. We were in front of him
and banging away, but he laid his pads on the ice and a lot of
pucks just kept bouncing off his pads and then he covered them
up. It's one of those nights where it didn't go in the net for
us."
Anderson said it was frustrating to give up a goal so early.
"You never want to get beat on the first shot, so I was mad at
myself and knew I didn't play it the right way," Anderson said.
"Fortunately enough, we came back and tied it up. After that, I
just got (angry) and said I'm not going to let the team down
tonight."
"He played well," added Ryan Getzlaf, who had a nine-game point
streak stopped. "We pumped 45 shots on him, and most of them
were quality shots. We had a lot of opportunities."
The Ducks were disappointed with the way they started the game,
especially since the Panthers played in Phoenix on Saturday
night.
"We have to be able to jump on them early," Getzlaf said. "We
didn't stick with it. The second half of the game, we played
pretty well, we just couldn't bury it. We had a lot of chances
and it just wasn't going in."
"We came out flat," Giguere said. "I think they played a pretty
good 60 minutes. Any team in this league that plays a good,
solid 60 minutes has a chance to win. I think if you work as
hard as the other team and have more talent, eventually you'll
come out winning more games. I think if we would have played a
solid first period, take their will away, perhaps the scenario
would have been different. We didn't do that, we gave them
life."
Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle agreed.
"I didn't think we were physical enough and I didn't think we
executed to the level that was necessary until later in the
hockey game," Carlyle said. "In the NHL, it takes 60 minutes to
win and I don't think we played 60 minutes."
Anaheim, which set a franchise record for home wins last season,
has opened this campaign 4-5-1 at the Honda Center.
"We have to be better at home," Giguere said. "It's unacceptable
to play like that in front of our fans."