It’s Alex Lyon’s world and we’re all just living in it.
The 30-year-old veteran roared into Thursday’s game riding the best run of NHL hockey he’s enjoyed in his entire career.
All he did to keep it going was nearly match a Panthers franchise record that was set over 20 years ago en route to his, and Florida’s, fifth straight win.
Lyon finished the game with 56 saves, the second-most in a single game in Panthers history, as Florida trounced Ottawa 7-2.
The Lyon King came just one save short of the franchise record set by Roberto Luongo in a game against the Detroit Red Wins in February of 2002.
The victory kept Florida atop the Wild Card race and lowered their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to five.
Lyon wasn’t the only Panthers player to have a big game against Ottawa.
Brandon Montour finished the night with four points, Sasha Barkov had two goals and an assist and six Florida players finished with muti-point games.
It was a very entertaining night of hockey, full of points and penalties.
By the time the final buzzer went off, six players and a coach were tossed and a total of 166 penalty minutes had been handed out by the officiating crew.
Fans seemed to have a blast, with chants inside FLA Live Arena ranging from “Ly-on Ly-on” to “We want ten.”
FIRST PERIOD
Starting with the opening shift when Jake Sanderson wired a puck off the post, Ottawa carried the majority of the pace through the early stages of the game.
Lyon got off to a good start, continuing his strong play for Florida by stopping several high-danger opportunities to keep things scoreless.
The Panthers would take advantage of Lyon’s heroics thanks to a pair of players on respective hot streaks, Montour and Matthew Tkachuk.
Montour finished off a nice pass from Tkachuk, wristing the puck past Sens goalie Leevi Merilainen to give Florida a 1-0 lead at the 7:59 mark.
The goal seemed to change the momentum in Florida’s favor, as the Panthers began dominating puck possession.
With just over six minutes left in the period, Eetu Luostarinen was tripped up while trying to find a streaking Aaron Ekblad, leading to the first power play of the game.
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to cash in.
Sam Reinhart won the faceoff back to Montour, and he quickly got the puck to an open Sasha Barkov along the side boards.
Barkov hesitated for a moment as Merilainen went down, and that gave the Florida captain just enough room under the crossbar. The power play snipe was Barkov’s 21st goal on the season.
Despite being outshot 21-9 during the opening frame, the Panthers took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
SECOND PERIOD
Ottawa opened the second period on the power play, but it was the Panthers who would find the back of the net.
Shortly after Lyon made a sliding right pad save on Drake Batherson, Reinhart led Florida on a shorthanded rush up the ice.
He slid the puck to Barkov on the outside, and Sasha let it loose from just inside the left circle for his 12th career shorty.
Ottawa swapped goalies at this point, with Mads Sogaard coming in to relieve Merilainen.
Claude Giroux got the Senators on the board after finding room in the slot and beating Lyon. The goal came moments after Brady Tkachuk lost an edge and took out Lyon’s legs. Florida was upset there was no call, and the goal was scored during the aftermath.
This is where the game started going off the rails a bit.
Not long after the goal, Ottawa forward Patrick Brown very openly and intentionally snow-sprayed Lyon, which led to a melee literally on top of the Panthers net.
Credit to Radko Gudas for immediately going after Brown in defense of his goaltender.
Florida scored on the ensuing PP when Reinhart got his stick on a Montour point shot.
With the Panthers now leading 4-1 and the game, and season, slipping away from Ottawa, they reacted in an unfortunate way.
A play that ended with Brady Tkachuk on top of Lyon led to another brawl, after which both Tkachuk and Marc Staal were given game misconducts.
All that led to another Panthers power play, and another Panthers power play goal. This time it was Luostarinen who was in the right place at the right time, slamming home an Ekblad rebound from the top of the crease. Florida now led by four.
The big lead helped mitigate the frustration of both Ekblad and Cousins taking minor penalties in the same sequence.
It’s not often you see a full two-minute 5-on-3 power play, but you know what’s even more rare? A team killing off a full two-minute 5-on-3.
Lyon made five saves during two-man advantage and Gudas come up with back-to-back blocks on Batherson and DeBrincat, leading to a loud ovation from the crowd.
As if that wasn’t a big enough blow to the Senators dwindling confidence, Cousins came out of the box and was led on a breakaway by Ekblad. He went five hole on Sogaard to put Florida ahead 6-1.
The five-goal lead wouldn’t last though.
A Forsling point shot eluded Sogaard with exactly three minutes left in the period to make it 7-1 Panthers. Florida did all that damage on just 19 shots on goal.
THIRD PERIOD
A quick summary of the third period:
Lyon made 16 more saves, Ottawa scored with 3:41 to go and another four players, and Sens coach D.J. Smith, were given game misconducts, including the remaining Tkachuk brother.
Three games to go. Panthers remain in the proverbial driver’s seat.
GAME NOTES
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