Jokinen, Panthers cool off Flyers

SUNRISE, Fla. - From the Flyers' perspective, Olli Jokinen picked a bad time to end a pointless streak.

The strapping 6-foot-3, 214-pound center from Finland scored two early goals tonight at the BankAtlantic Center as the Florida Panthers snapped the Flyers' five-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory.

It was an ugly way for the Flyers to start an eight-game road trip, and was compounded by the loss of Simon Gagne to dizziness after he was drilled by Jay Bouwmeester on the first shift of the game.

Bouwmeester stood Gagne up in the neutral zone with a high hit.

"I know I got a pass from a defenseman, and I tried to skate and I got hit by one of their two tall defensemen," Gagne said. "They are pretty tall, so [his] shoulder came a little bit into my face and a little bit of my shoulder.

"It wasn't shoulder-to-shoulder because they are taller than me, so it was high chest and a little bit of my face."

Gagne suffered a concussion four years ago. He will be evaluated today, the Flyers said.

"I don't think this is as bad," Gagne said. "The last one, I was a lot dizzier and fatigued and I had pressure in my head all the time."

The Flyers looked sluggish all night, including goalie Martin Biron.

"The puck wasn't sticking to me the way it had been," Biron said. "It was bouncing in areas I didn't want it to bounce."

Jokinen was shut out last week during the Panthers' three-game trip to Canada. He needed just one point tonight to become the team's all-time leading scorer.

It took him only 2 minutes, 35 seconds to get it, too, with a rebound off a wrist shot from the high slot after a Bouwmeester point shot. Jokinen's 355th point as a Panther eclipsed Scott Mellanby's record.

Jokinen took 10 shots in the game. His second goal, at 8:56, was his 158th as a Panther, breaking another Mellanby record. The goal came on a power-play rush, with Jokinen firing from the right circle to the far side of the net.

Florida had a 2-0 lead after seven shots.

"I think we [gave] them way too much space on our end," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "Jokinen [had] the puck way too much. The big focus going in was defending really hard one-on-one, and I didn't think we did a very good job there. . . .

"We allowed too many pucks from below the goal line in front of our net. We got beat to loose pucks in front of our net, and we allowed them too much time with the puck in our end. We hadn't been doing that to this point."

Stevens started Joffrey Lupul at right wing on Danny Briere's line, which was joined by Gagne, but had to mix his lines to compensate for Gagne's absence.

The only momentum the Flyers generated came after they killed a four-minute roughing penalty by Ben Eager in the second period and responded with a power-play goal from Lupul and a two-on-one goal from Jeff Carter to tie the score at 11:10.

Florida, however, went ahead at 14:16 on a goal from Greg Campbell, who scored again in the third period. His shot from above the left circle in the second period hit Jason Smith and seemed to go under Biron's left arm.

"It was one of those nights where the puck always seemed to find a spot, and I was battling it," Biron said. "It went off the shaft of his stick and inside his shin pads and changed directions a couple of times."

Campbell's second goal, on a rebound early in the third period, decided matters, although Lasse Kukkonen got it back for the Flyers at 12:46 with a backhander under goalie Tomas Vokoun.

Loose pucks. Bill Clement will be back in the Flyers' broadcast booth for nine games, subbing for Keith Jones on Comcast SportsNet on nights Jones is working for Versus.