SUNRISE, Fla. -- Shane Harper waited a long time to score his first NHL goal. He liked the feeling so much, he scored a second one.Harper scored his first two NHL goals to lift the Florida Panthers over the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Saturday night.A pretty incredible feeling, said the 27-year-old rookie. Im just real excited to get that win, especially with some guys being out of the lineup right now with injuries. It just makes it even more important for everybody else to pick up some slack. Thats what were trying to do. That victory makes it so much better.Harper played in the minor leagues for the past seven years and notched 340 games in the AHL and sometimes wondered if he would ever get that first NHL goal.Theres times when you think like that for sure, Harper said. Ive been pretty confident in myself that it would come. I always thought I just needed to get my shot.Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and an assist and Aaron Ekblad also scored a goal for the Panthers while Roberto Luongo made 26 saves.Matt Duchene and Blake Comeau scored goals for the Avalanche. Semyon Varlamov made 33 stops.The Panthers blew the game open in the third period as they scored three of four goals in a span of 2:26.Ahead 2-1, Marchessault skated in on a breakaway and fired the puck between the pads of Varlamov at 4:30 to make the score 3-1. Harper followed with his second goal of the game on a one-timer from in front to stretch the lead to 4-1.Duchene poked in a rebound past Luongo 16 seconds later to close the gap to 4-2.Trocheck slid a loose puck into the net at 6:56 to make the score 5-2 and shared in Harpers excitement.To see him, 27-years-old, finally get his first NHL goal and pop two in the same game, its definitely exciting to see that, Trocheck said.The Panthers took 17 shots and scored two goals in the second period.Florida had a 2-1 lead on the goal by Harper with 2:58 left in the second. Greg McKegg stole the puck from Duchene in the neutral zone and brought it down the left side. McKegg passed to Harper in front and he poked the puck over the glove of Varmalov for his first goal.He found the back of the net twice and that was real good, Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. The kid played hard, he works hard and going hard to the net and you get rewarded.Colorado played a strong first period but faded in the second and third.Crucial mistakes at crucial times cost us. (It) was not good enough, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.Trailing 1-0, the Panthers evened the score at 1-all on the power-play when Ekblad took a feed from Jagr low in the left circle and one-timed the puck past Varlamov at 1:30. Ekblad recorded his first point of the season.Comeaus power-play goal gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 7:38 of the first. Tyson Barrie shot from the blue line and Comeau tipped the puck past Luongo on the glove side. The goal was the first the Panthers have allowed on the power-play in nine opportunities.A little bit of a roller coaster for us, I think, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. I like the way the game started, the first period, but we werent able to sustain it.A coachs challenge by Colorado overturned a goal by Jason Demers midway through the first. His slapper got past Varlamov but the officials ruled Vincent Trocheck was offsides before the shot.Colorado is coming off a four-game road trip and wont play until they host Winnipeg on Friday.We need a little rest to get ready for next weekend, Bednar said.Game notes Avalanche C John Mitchell missed the game with a lower-body injury. ... Panthers LW Jussi Jokinen missed the game with a knee injury. ... The Panthers entered the game as the only team in the NHL yet to allow a power-play goal but the streak ended in the first period.UP NEXT:Avalanche: Host Winnipeg Jets on Friday.Panthers: Visit Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
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Cheap Nike Shoes From China . Perez, 35, posted a 1-2 record with a 3.69 earned-run average in 19 relief appearances last season. His season ended Aug. 9 due to a torn ligament in his left elbow. Perez joins infielder Andy LaRoche and catcher Mike Nickeas with minor-league agreements for 2014 that include invitations to attend spring training. CINCINNATI -- Andy Dalton has thrown only three touchdown passes in four games, a statistic that points to why the Bengals (2-2) are treading water.The passing game is missing something important, and its not the quarterback.Daltons new-look receiving group hasnt kept up with the one from last season, the most glaring change from their 8-0 start in 2015.A.J. Green has two touchdown catches, and running back Giovani Bernard has one. At this point last season, the Bengals already had nine touchdown passes.Their scoring is way down as a result. Last season, the Bengals scored at least 24 points in each of their first four games with a total of 121. This season, they havent scored more than 23 in any game and have only 78 points overall.Instead of touchdowns, theyre settling for field goals. Thats the main thing theyre trying to correct heading into games at Dallas (3-1) and New England (3-1), places where they havent won since the 1980s.Weve got a lot of new faces in there offensively, left tackle Andrew Whitworth said.Theres a lot of guys that havent been leaned on to play that many snaps or have never played in the offense, so theres going to be a growing part of the season. Now its time to really see guys take leaps and bounds forward.The Bengals knew there would be a break-in period with their new receivers . Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu left as free agents, taking away the No. 2 and No. 3 receivers from last season.Plus, tight end Tyler Eifert -- who set a club record for touchdown catches by a tight end with 13 -- tore a ligament in his ankle during the Pro Bowl and hasnt played yet.The Bengals filled the receiver openings by signing Brandon LaFell and drafting Tyler Boyd from Pitt.LaFell has 13 catches in four games for 208 yards without a touchdown. Boyd has 12 catches for 130 yards without a touchdown.Green has bailed them out with a couple of big games. He caught 12 passes for 180 yards in an opening victory against the Jets, and he had 10 catches for 173 yards in a win last Thursday over Miami.ddddddddddddOh man, its just fun to be lining up across from him, getting plays alongside him, communicating with him, Boyd said.Watching him make plays like that, its amazing. Hes a guy you know you can count on any given play at any given time.The Bengals are trying to get the rest of the receivers up to that level when they get close to the goal line. Theyve thrown for a lot of yards -- their passing game ranks third in the NFL.But theyve struggled inside the opponents 20-yard line. Theyve converted only 31 percent of those chances into touchdowns, the worst in the NFL.During the 4-0 start last season, Eifert had touchdown catches of 13, 8 and 9 yards; Green caught TDs of 16, 80 and 67 yards; Jones scored on catches of 45 and 16 yards; and Brandon Tate had a 55-yard touchdown catch.We should have more (touchdowns) than we have, offensive coordinator Ken Zampese said. Weve put ourselves in bad situations on our own -- self-inflicted. Regardless of who we have in there, were better than what weve shown and well be better as we go forward. Well make sure.Game notes The Bengals are 1-5 all time in Dallas, with their only win in 1988. Overall, theyve lost five of their past seven games against the Cowboys . ... The following week, the Bengals visit New England , where they havent won since 1986, dropping their past six. ... Its unclear when Eifert will be back. He got his left ankle taped and participated in a light workout with the team on Monday. Hes practiced on a limited basis for the past two weeks.---Online: AP NFL website:
www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed:
www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '
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