PANTHERS 2, ISLANDERS 0

Tomas Vokoun stopped 33 shots for the Florida Panthers, while the Islanders saw their losing streak extend to five games as they were shutout by Florida, 2-0.

Scoring goals have been a problem for the Islanders during the streak, as they've only scored six goals in those five games.

"(We need to) just work hard. There's no secret to it," Rob Schremp told MSG Plus' Rob Carlin after the second period. "If you're not scoring goals, you have to make sure you’re busting your butt everywhere else."

Jordan Leopold put the Florida up on the scoreboard first with 4:15 left in the first period on the power play.

With both teams playing four-on-four hockey and the Panthers penalty expiring, the returning David Booth led the play deep into the Islanders zone. Booth passed it off behind the net to Michael Frolik, who immediately located Leopold by the top of the left face off circle. Leopold then let a wrist shot fly past Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro for his seventh goal of the season and a 1-0 Panthers lead.

The Panthers doubled their lead in the waning moments of what was a quiet second period.

Keith Ballard scored his fourth goal of the season with 9.6 seconds left to play in the middle frame. Cory Stillman positioned himself at the left half-boards and located Ballard breaking deep into the Islanders zone on the right side and connected with his defenseman with a sharp cross-ice pass. Ballard caught DiPietro moving and fired a shot past the Islanders netminder to put his team up, 2-0.

"It's a team rule, you never let up with under a minute left," Schremp told Carlin after the second period. "You never want to let up a goal."

The Islanders looked to get an early third period goal when Freddy Meyer had an excellent scoring chance on a break-in attempt. Jon Sim fed a centering pass to Meyer who broke in behind Florida defenseman Shawn Matthias. Meyer, who was being tripped up by Matthias deflected the pass off the left post behind Vokoun. However, as Meyer barrelled into the Florida goal, the puck did not cross the goal line before the net was knocked off its moorings.

Meyer did draw a tripping penalty on Matthias for his work, but the Islanders were not able to convert on the man advantage.

The power play was unsuccessful overall for the Islanders on the afternoon, as they saw no goals on four opportunities on 10 shots.

Vokoun stood strong in the final 20 minutes, stopping all 13 shots the Islanders threw at him in the third period for his seventh shutout of the season.

Three Stars of the Game:
1. Tomas Vokoun, FLA: 33 saves for his seventh shutout of the season
2. Keith Ballard, FLA: Iced game for Panthers with late second period goal.
3. Jordan Leopold, FLA: Seventh goal of season.

Slapshots: Islanders outshot Florida, 33-25...Bruno Gervais, Mark Streit and Frans Nielsen led all Islanders with 4 shots on goal...Florida was 1-3 on the power play, while the Islanders were unsuccessful on four man advantages...Jeff Tambellini, Trevor Gillies, and Dwayne Roloson (all healthy) are the Islanders scratches...This was the fourth and final meeting between the two teams this season; Florida won the season series with a 3-1 advantage...Islanders now hold an all-time record of 28-32-10 against the Panthers.

Craig to the Rescue: Did the play-by-play voice on MSG Plus sound unfamiliar? Enter Craig Minervini. Howie Rose felt ill again after Saturday afternoon’s game against Philadelphia, so Minervini, who is the Florida Marlins play-by-play man on Fox Sports Florida got the emergency recall.

ISLANDERS
Forwards
12 Josh Bailey - 91 John Tavares - 21 Kyle Okposo
26 Matt Moulson - 51 Frans Nielsen - 7 Trent Hunter
16 Jon Sim - 13 Rob Schremp - 57 Blake Comeau
20 Sean Bergenheim - 93 Doug Weight - 10 Richard Park

Defensemen
2   Mark Streit - 8 Bruno Gervais
25 Andy Sutton - 47 Andrew MacDonald
56 Dustin Kohn - 44 Freddy Meyer

Goaltenders
39 Rick DiPietro
43 Martin Biron

FLORIDA PANTHERS
Forwards
67 Michael Frolik - 9 Stephen Weiss - 61 Cory Stillman
10 David Booth - 27 Steven Reinprecht - 32 Michal Repik
85 Rostislav Olesz - 19 Dominic Moore - 14 Radek Dvorak
41 Shawn Matthias - 28 Kamil Kreps - 11 Gregory Campbell

Defensemen
24 Bryan McCabe - 543 Dmitry Kulikov
44 Jordan Leopold - 2 Keith Ballard
5   Bryan Allen - 4 Dennis Seidenberg

Goaltenders
29 Tomas Vokoun
30 Scott Clemmensen