Senators top Panthers, end seven-game losing streak

The Ottawa Senators ended a seven-game losing streak with a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Sunday.

"It feels really good for our guys. It's nice to see them have smiling faces," Senators coach Marc Crawford said. "We commented this morning that they were energized. It was nice to be out in the sun and all that sort of stuff."
It was the first win with Ottawa for Crawford, who was hired as interim coach on March 1 after Guy Boucher was fired.
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Panthers highlights]
"The younger Marc Crawford, it probably would've meant a little bit more [to him]," said Crawford, whose win was his first in the NHL since April 8, 2011, with the Dallas Stars. "But I've got a little better perspective on things right now. Now, I recognize it's the players. I'm the guy back there that's putting people on the ice, (but) it's the guys that are on the ice that deserve the credit and deserve the accolades."
Zack Smith, Brian Gibbons and Rudolfs Balcers scored, and Anders Nilsson made 30 saves for the Senators (23-38-5), who won for the first time since Feb. 16 (4-3 overtime victory against the Winnipeg Jets).

"It felt like everyone wanted to win tonight," Nilsson said. "Everyone gave their everything, their 100 percent. Maybe it wasn't that pretty, but it was two points and I think a confidence boost for the team."
Aleksander Barkov and Troy Brouwer scored, and Roberto Luongo made 30 saves for the Panthers (28-26-11), who lost their fourth straight (0-1-3) and are 10 points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"The second was our worst [period], I thought," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "I had to shut it down and go to three lines into the third period just to try and get some momentum going. We had it going, we were rolling, we were getting chances, and then all of a sudden, we took two penalties. Sort of killed our roll we were on."
Smith scored on a rebound of Jean-Gabriel Pageau's initial shot at the right post to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 5:10 of the first period. It was his first goal in 11 games.
"They've obviously been few and far between for me this year, so I'll take any one I can get," Smith said.
Barkov redirected in a point shot from Mark Pysyk to tie it 1-1 at 9:02, and Brouwer took a cross-ice pass from Riley Sheahan in the slot and scored with a snap shot to give Florida a 2-1 lead at 15:36.
Gibbons scored his first goal with the Senators to tie it 2-2 at 5:06 of the second period on a one-timer at the left hash marks off a pass from Cody Ceci. Gibbons was acquired by Ottawa in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 25.

"I had a tough year to start, out in Anaheim," Gibbons said. "I've just used the trade as a fresh start and to kind of save my season a little bit."
Balcers redirected a slap pass from Dylan DeMelo on the power play to give Ottawa a 3-2 lead at 17:25.
"In the second, we came out and I think we were above them," Balcers said. "We had good sticks and everything, and that kind of gave us a boost of confidence. We just played hard. And then in the third, we just battled it out."

They said it

"I thought we did a real good job of getting a lot better in those crucial areas. Our battle level was higher. We had it from older players and we had it from younger players. … The belief that [we] showed and how we were playing was the kind of belief that you get from a team that's playing for something."-- Senators coach Marc Crawford
"Maybe [our legs were] not at our best shape, but it's the NHL and there's going to be games where you don't feel the greatest. You've got to be able to go out there and still find ways to put points up on the board." -- Panthers forward Mike Hoffman on the team playing its fifth game in seven days
"It's just those moments when we take our foot off the gas. We get those lapses where the other team capitalizes and gains some momentum, and then we get off our game." -- Panthers forward Riley Sheahan

Need to know

Each team was playing the second game of a back-to-back. … Barkov's goal was his 28th of the season, tying an NHL career high he set in 2015-16.

What's next

Senators:At the New York Islanders on Tuesday (Nassau Coliseum; 7 p.m. ET; MSG+, TSN5, RDS, NHL.TV)
Panthers:At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SN, ATTSN-PT, FS-F, NHL.TV)