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Panthers pounce on Senators, post 5-0 road win

Nov 27, 2023 | 8:18 PM

OTTAWA — Sam Reinhart’s two goals almost got overlooked in the battle of the Tkachuk brothers Monday night.

In the end, Matthew’s Florida Panthers got the better of Brady’s Ottawa Senators with a 5-0 win.

Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen also scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves for his second shutout of the season.

The win allowed the Panthers (13-7-1) to snap a two-game losing skid as they kick off three straight road games within the division.

Ottawa (8-9-0) struggled early and never managed to get on equal footing with the Panthers. Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 33 shots, got the start in goal after missing the last two games with a minor injury.

Trailing 3-0 the Senators started to show some life in the third period, but also let emotions get the best of them.

Matthew clearly got under the skin of his younger brother Brady’s teammates. Zack MacEwen jumped Matthew and took a five-minute match penalty for it. Jake Sanderson dropped the gloves against Matthew as well.

Brady also got in the middle of things and was in the penalty box for cross checking when Verhaeghe made it 4-0.

With just under seven minutes to play everyone on the ice got in a scrum and it resulted with all 10 players being assessed a game misconduct.

Luostarinen rounded out the scoring late in the period.

After a difficult first period things didn’t improve for the Senators in the second.

After failing to record a shot on goal on an early power play, Korpisalo made a couple of big saves to bail his teammates out, but fell victim to Reinhart after trying to clear the puck behind the net. The Panthers forward picked up his second of the game on a nice wraparound on the power play.

The Senators challenged the goal for being offside, but after a lengthy review it was deemed onside and Bennett went on to make it 3-0 on the ensuing power play.

The Panthers opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 88 seconds into the game on Reinhart’s first of the game. Barkov picked up his 400th career assist on the goal.

The Senators blew a great opportunity to get back in the game when Reinhart took a double minor for catching Tim Stutzle with a high stick, but Ottawa managed just one shot on goal.

NOTES

Ottawa D Thomas Chabot is nearing a return from his upper body injury. Chabot is taking full contact in practice. Ottawa’s Dominik Kubalik played in his 300th game.

UP NEXT

The Senators head to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets Friday night. The Panthers are back in action Tuesday against Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2023.

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press