Attention to detail pays off for Senators in 4-1 win over Panthers

OTTAWA - Kyle Turris had a goal and two assists in Ottawa's 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday as the Senators won back-to-back games for the first time in exactly seven weeks.

Bobby Ryan, Erik Karlsson and Curtis Lazar also scored for the Senators (24-23-10), while Andrew Hammond made 21 saves collecting his second straight win in just his second NHL start.

Aleksander Barkov scored the lone goal for the Panthers (26-12-12), who missed an opportunity to overtake the Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Roberto Luongo made 35 in the loss.

Karlsson scored at 8:03 of the third period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead and Lazar put the game out of reach with a breakaway goal at 12:09.

Ottawa entered the third period with a 2-1 lead thanks to Ryan's go-ahead goal at 8:40 of the second period.

Although it officially wasn't a power-play goal, Ryan tipped a point shot past Luongo at the exact moment the tripping penalty to Tomas Kopecky came to an end.

Florida was fortunate to be down only a goal after 40 minutes considering they were outshot 26-15 over that span.

The Panthers opened the scoring at 7:38 of the first period just seconds after they had a goal called off because the official had blown his whistle prior to the puck entering the net.

After the ensuing faceoff the puck game to Barkov at the top of the crease and his wrist shot beat Hammond, barely making its way across the goal-line.

The Senators tied the game a little less than three minutes later when Turris took a pass beside the net from Mark Stone and deposited the in the Florida goal behind Luongo.

Ottawa completed its five-game homestand with a 3-1-1 record and will now head out on the road for five games including three in California this week.

The Panthers will play fourth game of a five-game trip in Pittsburgh Sunday night.

Notes: Eric Gryba was scratched from the Senators' lineup, while the Panthers scratched Dmitry Kulikov and Sean Bergenheim… His first-period goal gave Kyle Turris 200 career points… Senators forward Matt Puempel played his first NHL game Saturday night… Saturday's game was the 200th behind the bench as a head coach for Panthers' coach Gerald Gallant.