Special teams were a disaster for the Panthers in what was a must-win game in Ottawa
The Florida Panthers playoff hopes took a fairly large hit on Monday night in Canada’s capital city.
Beginning a four-game road trip in Ottawa and needing to make up ground in the race for a Wild Card spot, the Panthers struggled to get going and never played with the lead in a deflating 5-2 loss to the Senators.
Not helping anything were the New York Islanders. A convincing 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils means the Isles now hold a six-point cushion on Florida, though the Cats do have a game in hand.
Getting back to Ottawa, the story of Monday’s game was in the special teams battle, or lack thereof from Florida’s perspective.
The long and the short of it: The Panthers came up empty on four power play opportunities while the Senators converted on three of their four.
As good as Florida may have been even strength, it’s very hard to succeed when giving up multiple power play goals while failing to get any yourself.
“I thought we were pretty good most of the night, but we got into some penalty trouble and they capitalized on their power plays and we didn’t on ours,” said Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk. “They definitely crushed us in the whole special teams battle tonight.”
There is little time for Florida to dwell.
A practice day on Tuesday will be followed by back-to-back games in Toronto and Montreal on Wednesday and Thursday.
FIRST PERIOD
Ottawa was gifted an early power play after Marc Staal was called for delay of game. Sergei Bobrovsky failed to corral an outside wrist shot from Brady Tkachuk and the puck dribbled to the top of the crease.
Staal quickly reacted to clear the puck, but did it with a bit too much mustard, sending the puck over the glass.
Florida was able to kill off the penalty, allowing Ottawa only a single shot on goal during the man advantage. It would turn out to be the Panthers only successful penalty kill on the night.
A few minutes later the Ottawa Tkachuk opened the scoring. Thomas Chabot made a nice move at the blue line to get around Givani Smith, then skated toward the middle of the ice before finding a wide open Tkachuk, who had been sliding deeper in the zone as Chabot made his move, for a one-timer from the faceoff dot that beat Bobrovsky to the stick side as he slid to his left.
Bobrovsky came up with a couple of huge saves in the later stages of the period. A mix-up by the Panthers at the Sens blue line led to an Alex DeBrincat breakaway going the other way.
Bobrovsky stopped him with an outstretched left pad, and then dug in with his right skate and pushed back to his left in time to absolutely rob Shane Pinto with a spectacular glove save.
Unfortunately, a questionable offensive zone penalty called on Josh Mahura not long after the super save sequence led to an Ottawa power play that would make the game 2-0.
The goal came off an unfortunate bounce when Gus Forsling blocked a shot at the top of the crease that went off his stick blade and hit him right in the face, stunning him. The puck disappeared for a moment before dropping at Forsling’s feet.
Aaron Ekblad poked the puck away, but it went right to Erik Brannstrom who had a wide-open net to shoot at as several players, including Bob, continued searching for the puck.
SECOND PERIOD
Chabot tried to make the same move at the blue line on Anthony Duclair that worked earlier on Smith, but Duclair read it perfectly, deflecting the puck into the neutral zone and using his speed to chase it down.
Duclair ended up getting a semi-breakaway on Sens goalie Mads Sogaard but had Chabot hanging off his back and a valiant attempt was stopped.
Not long after, a Gus Forsling one-timer from the point got the Panthers on the board.
The pass came from behind the net as Sam Reinhart angled the puck off the boards to Forsling, who leaned into a shot that eluded Sogaard with Eric Staal providing traffic in front.
It was a big, momentum-shifting goal that cut Ottawa’s lead to 2-1with 14:02 to go in the second.
As the period progressed, the Panthers appeared to be playing with a sense of desperation normally reserved for third periods.
A late power play goal by DeBrincat was incredibly deflating, putting Florida behind by two heading into the third period.
THIRD PERIOD
A fast-moving third period did not play into the Panthers favor.
Florida’s fourth power play opportunity would come about midway through, but there was little to get excited about…until it was over.
A furious flurry as the power play expired led to a couple great looks for Duclair and Ekblad before the puck found its way back to Forsling at the point.
It really was an amazing shot by Forsling. He was partially falling down but was able to shift his weight enough to balance himself for a blistering one-timer that went bar downski.
With half a period to go, Florida had once again clawed within one.
They kept pressing too, but were constantly thwarted by the massive frame of Sogaard.
What proved to be the deciding play that would sabotage Florida’s comeback effort was a faceoff violation penalty by Anton Lundell with 4:06 to go.
It was an offensive zone draw to the right of Sogaard. Lundell used his left glove to push the puck backwards and it was quickly caught by the lineman who was still standing in the faceoff circle.
Another power play for Ottawa would lead to another goal for the home team while up a man. This time it was a one-timer by Pinto that went through Bobrovsky giving the Sens a commanding 4-2 lead.
An empty net goal would make it 5-2 and send the Senators fans home smiling.
GAME NOTES
- undefined
- undefined
- undefined
- undefined
- undefined
- undefined