Turris leads Senators past Panthers 3-2, spoiling Florida coaching staff's debut

OTTAWA - Kyle Turris had a goal and an assist in the Ottawa Senators' 3-2 win over Florida on Saturday and spoil the debut of the Panthers' new coaching staff.

Kevin Dineen was let go as the head coach of the Panthers on Friday as were assistant coaches Gord Murphy and Craig Ramsay. Dineen was replaced with Peter Horachek, who was the coach of Florida's minor-league team in San Antonio.

Original Florida captain Brian Skrudland — who had been serving as the team's director of player development — and former Panthers centre John Madden became the replacements for Murphy and Ramsay.

Mika Zibanejad and Clarke McArthur also scored for the Senators (7-6-4), who won for the three straight time. Lehner made 25 saves for the win.

Nick Bjugstad and Marcel Goc replied for the Panthers (3-10-4), who have now lost eight straight, despite a 28-save performance from Tim Thomas in his first game back after missing six straight with a lower body injury.

Trailing 3-1, the Panthers had a two-man advantage for a minute and 17 seconds in the third period and despite controlling the puck for nearly the entire time they were not only unable to beat Lehner but they only had three shots.

Less than three minutes after the second penalty ended Goc beat Lehner with a wristshot to pull the Panthers to within a goal.

The Senators scored the only goal of the second period and that came on the front end of a five-on-three power play.

After passing the puck around the Panthers' end, McArthur was finally able to but a one-timer past Thomas after a pass from defenceman Erik Karlsson.

Two quick goals by the Senators put the Panthers on their heels early and present the visitors with a deficit they were never able to recover from.

The first goal came off the stick of Turris, but it was the work of Bobby Ryan that made it possible. After breaking in a lone on the Boston goal only to be stopped by Thomas, Ryan followed the puck to the corner and sent a pass to Turris at the edge of the faceoff circle and Turris promptly beat Thomas with a slow shot at 1:45.

Just 19 seconds later, following a Florida turnover in their own end, Zibanejad scored from behind the net as he banked a shot off Panthers defenceman Erik Gudbranson and in.

Exactly one minute after that the Panthers got on the board on a great effort from Bjugstad and a lapse in judgment from Karlsson, who seemed to turn away from the forward who was allowed to cut to the front of the net and jam the puck past Lehner.

Karlsson's defence partner, Jared Cowen, also appeared to back off while in front of the net allowing Bjugstad extra room.

The rest of the period featured multiple odd-man breaks for both sides and a lot of back-and-forth play, but no more goals.

Notes: Eric Gryba and Joe Corvo were both scratches for the Senators Saturday afternoon while the Panthers Scott Gomez and Jacob Markstrom…Bobby Ryan collected a first-period on the Senators' first goal Saturday and in the process extended his point streak to six game (3G 7A)… Dineen's coaching record with the Panthers was 56-62-28, including 3-9-4 this season…While sitting out the first game of a three-game suspension, Panthers' forward Jesse Winchester not only missed out on playing his 250th NHL game, but also facing the team he played his first 233 games with…