Robinson's 1st NHL Goal Helps Senators Top Panthers 3-1
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OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Buddy Robinson scored his first NHL goal, helping the Ottawa Senators defeat the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Thursday night.
Mika Zibanejad and Cody Ceci also scored for the Senators, who finished 21-14-6 at home. Craig Anderson made 32 saves in his 60th start of the season.
Jaromir Jagr had the lone goal for the Panthers, whose three-game winning streak was stopped.
The Senators took a 2-0 lead midway through the second period when Robinson redirected Ceci's point shot. It was Robinson's second NHL game after he spent the majority of the season with the American Hockey League's Binghamton Senators.
Zibanejad opened the scoring late in the first period with a power-play goal. It was his 20th of the season and gave the Senators five 20-goal scorers for the second straight season.
Trailing 2-0, the Panthers got on the board at the four-minute mark of the third when Aleksander Barkov made a pass from behind the net to Jagr, who squeezed the puck in for his 27th of the season.
Ceci scored his 10th of the season to give the Senators some breathing room late in the third, beating Al Montoya through traffic to make it 3-1.
With time winding down, Anderson made a huge blocker save on Rocco Grimaldi that brought a huge cheer from the sellout crowd of 19,165.
NOTES: Erik Karlsson picked up his 65th assist on the Senators' first goal and now has 81 points, setting career highs in both categories. He's also the first defenseman since the Rangers' Brian Leetch had 85 in the 1995-96 season to have more than 80 points. ... RW Mark Stone missed his fourth straight game (upper body) and Mark Methot missed his third (undisclosed). Florida D Erik Gudbranson missed his second straight game (upper body).
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