The Ottawa Senators scored five unanswered goals to defeat the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Wednesday at Canadian Tire Centre. Tim Stutzle led the offense with a goal and an assist as Ottawa pulled away over the final two periods.
Florida opened the scoring at 10:00 of the first period on a power-play wrist shot from Brady Tkachuk, assisted by Matthew Tkachuk and Seth Jones. Ottawa countered at 14:13 when Stutzle scored on a power play with a wrist shot set up by Jake Sanderson and Stephen Halliday. Claude Giroux gave Ottawa the lead at 9:34 of the second period with an even-strength wrist shot off a pass from Nikolas Matinpalo, followed by Shane Pinto's even-strength goal at 17:18 assisted by Sanderson.
Ottawa added two shorthanded tallies in the third period to seal the win. Warren Foegele scored his first goal of the season at 7:58 on a wrist shot assisted by Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson. Halliday finished the scoring at 14:57 with a shorthanded snap shot assisted by Stutzle.
Linus Ullmark earned the win in net for Ottawa, stopping 17 of 18 shots, while Samuel Ersson added one save on one shot. Akira Schmid took the loss for Florida, allowing five goals on 29 shots. Ottawa converted one of eight power-play opportunities and scored twice while killing penalties, while Florida finished one for five with the man advantage.
With the result, the Senators improved their regular-season record to 7-3-0. The Panthers dropped to 5-3-2 after seeing their three-game winning streak come to an end.
Both teams return to the ice on Thursday, October 22. Ottawa hosts the San Jose Sharks, while Florida visits the Pittsburgh Penguins.
