The Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Florida Panthers on Friday night 2-0 in front of 10,511 at PNC Arena. Willie Mitchell scored his first of the season for the Panthers to break a scoreless deadlock 4:00 into the third period, and Reilly Smith added an empty net goal with :21 left.
Stopping there would produce the world's most boring recap, and even then it would be more entertaining than the plodding, close-checking, suck-the-life-out-of-the-crowd exhibition that the Canes and Panthers put on.
"There wasn't a lot of free space," said Canes coach Bill Peters in the understatement of the night.