The Florida Panthers might be desperate to end their lengthy playoff drought, but they certainly aren’t making it easy on themselves. Rich Peverley scored his second goal of the game in the third period to break a tie and lift the Atlanta Thrashers to a 3-1 win over Florida on Friday night. Florida missed a chance to tie the eighth-place New York Rangers in points at the bottom of the Eastern…

Game preview: Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Islanders Tampabay.com, FL By Damian Cristodero, Times Staff Writer Injuries: Tampa Bay — G Mike Smith (concussion), D Paul Ranger (shoulder), D Andrej Meszaros (shoulder) and D Marek Malik (ankle) are out; D Richard Petiot (shoulder) is day to day. New York — C Mike Sillinger ..

Brodeur getting barraged during six-game slide NHL.com No one's going to top the 30th-place New York Islanders ' 2-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, who entered last Friday night first in the overall standings — 51 points ahead of the Islanders. Though there have been instances in which a team beat a …