Bobrovsky's dominance of the Senators continued on Saturday, as did the Sens' penalty kill struggles.
Make it four straight losses for the Ottawa Senators.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves as the visiting Florida Panthers defeated the Senators 3-2 on Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre (17,085).
To say that Bobrovsky has Ottawa’s number would be a massive understatement. According to Sportsnet, he entered the game with a 12–3 record in his last 15 games against the Senators, along with a 1.60 goals-against average, a .938 save percentage, and four shutouts.
Both of the goals that beat him in this one were lucky bounces.
Meanwhile, amid all the valid complaints about Ottawa’s goaltending this season, goal scoring has now become a concern. The Senators have just five goals in their last three games, hardly the run support they’d like to give their scuffling 23-year-old goaltender, Leevi Meriläinen. With Linus Ullmark out on a leave of absence, Merilainen hasn't yet been able to conjure up the magic we saw last season.
This loss had more to do with another ongoing concern this season; the penalty kill, and it let them down again on Saturday, surrendering two power-play goals and in a tight checking defensive battle, that was lethal.
In truth, the Senators were fortunate to score at all in this one. Fabian Zetterlund’s first goal of the game came on a bizarre deflection that landed on top of Bobrovsky’s arm and bounced in behind him.
Florida’s first power-play goal came from Evan Rodrigues at 11:34 of the first period. With Tim Stützle sprawled on his knees attempting to block the shot, Rodrigues toe-dragged the puck toward the middle, patiently waiting for Tim Stützle to slide by, and then he had all the time he needed to rip a wrist shot past Meriläinen to tie the game.
Carter Verhaeghe quickly became public enemy number one at the CTC. He scored on the power play at 13:13 of the second period and further angered the crowd when he later ran Artem Zub hard into the end boards with an obvious shove. Objectively, the play appeared worthy of a five-minute major. After a lengthy discussion, however, officials assessed only a two-minute minor, leaving the Ottawa crowd livid.
Despite their modest shot total, the Senators generated some great chances but simply couldn’t finish.
Gustav Forsling made it 3–1 at 3:48 in the third. Forsling stepped up from the blue line and from the top of the circle, hammered a shot high on Meriläinen’s glove side. It wasn’t a great goal, as Meriläinen was deep in his crease and down early.
The Senators created some late hope with 1:42 remaining. Claude Giroux fired a hard wrist shot from the boards that deflected in off the stick shaft of Drake Batherson and over top of Bobrovsky.
With the goalie off for the extra attacker, Stützle had the best chance in the dying moments, but his wrist shot from the point whistled just past the left post.
"It was a tight game both ways," head coach Travis Green said after the game. "Not a lot going on offensively. We had to fight for space. They had to fight for space. Came up on the short end of the stick. I thought we lacked a little bit of desperation. There's just there's another level of desperation that we can play with and it's not just defensively, it's offensively, it's taking a hit to make a play, beating a check to the net. You know, we had a lot of pucks that we missed in front of the net. We've got to bear down in those areas.
"When you're winning, everything comes easy, everything flows, you feel great. And when you're not, it's hard. And that's when you've got to really dig in and play really hard.
"They're a hard team to play against, don't get me wrong. A lot of teams mimic how that team plays. They have it down pat. They played a good road game. And we didn't play terrible. We just didn't quite get it done."
The Senators have now lost four straight games and seven of their last nine. They return to action Tuesday night at home against the Vancouver Canucks.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News - Ottawa