Dineen: Afternoon games are not easy

The Panthers had not played an afternoon game this season before Saturday's 1 p.m. start against the host Devils.

Now, Florida is going for two.

The Panthers, who upended the Devils 3-1 on Saturday afternoon, get a shot at a rare matinee doubleheader as they visit the Islanders on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Panthers didn't seem to mind the early start, although the opening of the first period was rough.

Florida didn't get its first shot off until midway through the period although they closed with a good run and tied the score when Sean Bergenheim redirected a shot from Erik Gudbranson.

The caffeine seemed to kick in during the second period as the Panthers controlled play and took a 2-1 lead on Kris Versteeg's goal.

Florida got another strong performance from Scott Clemmensen against the Devils. Clemmensen, who once played for the Devils, is now 4-0 against his former team.

"I don't think our first 10 minutes were very easy," coach Kevin Dineen said. "They ended up on top, and we didn't get off to a great start. You talk about those afternoon games, it's not an easy thing to do. It's like flying to Europe; you change your biological clock. This was our first afternoon game of the year. We had a meeting at 8:45 in the morning. That threw me out of my routine. But we responded as the game went on."

Of course, the Panthers do seem to enjoy playing on Saturday as Florida has won nine of those 11 games this season.

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