Senators shut out again, lose all four games to Florida this season

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PANTHERS 2, SENATORS 0

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Four times the Ottawa Senators played the Florida Panthers this season.

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Four times they lost.

In three of those games, Ottawa didn’t score. Yeah, so the Panthers really have the Senators’ number.

And the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk has that on his brother Brady, the Senators’ captain.

The Panthers beat the Senators 2-0 Tuesday night on home ice.

Ottawa had already lost 5-0, 3-2 and last week’s 6-0 embarrassment at Canadian Tire Centre.

“We didn’t forget what happened at home,” Senators winger Parker Kelly told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson. “We wanted to give a good effort tonight and I thought we did that.”

The Senators, who were mathematically eliminated from a playoff spot last week, have four games remaining, just one (Saturday versus the Montreal Canadiens) at home.

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The Senators fell behind 2-0 in the first period.

An Anton Lundell power-play goal with 7:58 left in the opening period gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Lundell was set up by a terrific long pass from goalie Anthony Stolarz, subbing in for Sergei Bobrovsky who was pulled from the lineup at the last minute.

It was 2-0 Florida when the Senators turned the puck over outside their blue line. Nick Cousins was left alone and fired a shot past Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo.

There wasn’t a lot of action in the second period. Some hits, some scrums, but there were also just seven shots (four for Ottawa and three for Florida). Shots were 12-9 for Florida in the more-eventful opening period. There were plenty of shots in the third — Florida outshot Ottawa 13-11.

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EXTRA TIME: Assistant equipment manager Ian Cox worked his 1,000th pro game. Nice accomplishment and nice second-intermission tribute to him. The players also wore special 1,000-game T-shirts as a tribute to Cox. … Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot rang a shot off the goalpost in the first minute of the second period … Brady Tkachuk looked skyward after he found himself alone to the side of the Florida net and was robbed by Stolarz early in the third period … Didn’t hear the name of former Senators winger Vladimir Tarasenko much. Going into the game, he had 12 points in 15 games since being dealt to Florida from Ottawa … The Senators had 39 hits and 20 blocked shots. Said Senators coach Jacques Martin: “That has to be part of our (mentality), especially with some skill players out of the lineup. We have to grind and try to get more shots toward the net. Said Kelly: “We’re trying to follow Brady’s lead. He plays hard every night. You have to be physical in this league if you want to win.”

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ICE CHIPS: Former teammates Zack MacEwen and Jonah Gadjovich dropped the gloves and got fighting majors 2:20 into the game. Not much of a fight, though … Five minutes later, Ridly Greig drilled Niko Mikkola into the boards and the two then fought. The much bigger Mikkola ended up on top of Greig, who got a minor penalty to go with the fighting major. Good for Greig. It was Mikkola who drilled Tim Stutzle last week and knocked the Senators’ centre out of action … Martin said Stutzle may be ready to return for Ottawa’s next game, Thursday in Tampa … The puck took a huge ricochet as it rolled along the boards behind Korpisalo and as he went to chase it, it bounced in front, nearly resulting in a Florida goal with six minutes left in the first period … It was the 100th NHL game for defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker. 

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