Panthers Fall 4-1 To Senators, Miss Chance To Pass Bruins
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OTTAWA (CBSMiami/AP) — The Florida Panthers had a chance to pass Boston for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference on Saturday. Instead the Cats lost 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators.
Kyle Turris had a goal and two assists in the victory, giving the Senators consecutive wins for the first time in seven weeks.
Bobby Ryan, Erik Karlsson and Curtis Lazar also scored for Ottawa, and Andrew Hammond made 21 saves for his second win in two NHL starts.
Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers, who missed an opportunity to pass Boston for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Roberto Luongo stopped 35 shots.
Ryan got the tiebreaking goal at 8:40 of the second period, tipping a point shot past Luongo just as the tripping penalty to Tomas Kopecky expired.
The Panthers were fortunate to be down only a goal after 40 minutes considering they were outshot 26-15 over that span.
Karlsson made it 3-1 at 8:03 of the third and Lazar capped the scoring with 7:51 remaining.
The Panthers opened the scoring at 7:38 of the first period just seconds after they had a goal called off because the official had blown his whistle prior to the puck entering the net.
After the ensuing faceoff the puck game to Barkov at the top of the crease and his wrist shot beat Hammond, barely making its way across the goal line.
The Senators tied it a little less than 3 minutes later when Turris took a pass beside the net from Mark Stone and sent the puck behind Luongo.
Ottawa completed its five-game homestand 3-1-1 record and opens a five-game road swing this week - including three in California.
The Panthers will play fourth game of a five-game trip at Pittsburgh on Sunday night.
NOTES: Eric Gryba was scratched from the Senators' lineup, while the Panthers scratched Dmitry Kulikov and Sean Bergenheim. ... His first-period goal gave Turris 200 career points. ... Senators forward Matt Puempel played his first NHL game Saturday night. ... Saturday's game was the 200th behind the bench as a head coach for the Panthers' Gerald Gallant.
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