MacKenzie Powers Panthers Past Blues 3-1
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ST. LOUIS (CBSMiami/AP) — The Florida Panthers appear to be getting things back on track.
Derek MacKenzie scored twice, and the Panthers beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Brandon Pirri also scored for Florida, which has won three in a row. Roberto Luongo made 29 saves.
David Backes scored for the Blues. Jake Allen made 12 saves in two periods, and Brian Elliott made eight stops in the third.
It's the first three-game win streak of the season for Florida, which opened a five-game trip with a 2-1 overtime victory at Detroit on Sunday.
The Blues had won six straight games against the Panthers. They are now 4-4-2 over their last 10 games after an 11-3-1 start to the season.
After a slow first period that included just seven shots, the Panthers scored three times in the final 7:42 of the second.
Pirri scored on a breakaway, assisted by Aleksander Barkov and Willie Mitchell, after a Vladimir Tarasenko turnover in the offensive zone. The goal, with 7:42 left in the period, was Pirri's fifth of the season.
Florida scored again just 13 seconds later on a turnaround slap shot by MacKenzie after a turnover by Steve Ott in the defensive zone.
The Blues answered 21 seconds later on a shot from David Backes that ricocheted off the skate of Dylan Olsen and past Luongo.
MacKenzie made it 3-1 at 16:41 of the second with his third of the season, a long wrist shot from the slot after a turnover by Kevin Shattenkirk in the neutral zone.
It was MacKenzie's first two-goal game since March 12, 2011, for Columbus at Carolina. He has 39 career goals in 413 regular-season games over 12 seasons.
NOTES: Florida C Nick Bjugstad missed the game with an upper-body injury. ... Panthers C Dave Bolland returned to lineup after he was a healthy scratch the previous three games.
The Panthers face the Nashville Predators on Thursday, December 3rd at 8:00 p.m. You can hear every game on Sports Radio 560 WQAM, the radio home of the Florida Panthers.
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