Panthers defeat Senators in OT, get 6th victory in row

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Anton Lundell scored 1:35 into overtime to give the Florida Panthers their sixth straight win, 3-2 against the Ottawa Senators at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.

Lundell drove down the left side and beat goalie Joonas Korpisalo high from a sharp angle.

“That may be one of the coolest moments I have had in this building, for sure,” Lundell said after his first NHL overtime goal. “I went out there in overtime and waited for my opportunity. I got the puck, saw [the] short side was open and tried to score.”

Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves for the Panthers (37-15-4).

Florida was coming off a 9-2 victory at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

“You could feel it coming,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “You score nine the game before, score in the first minute and it felt like the first game back off a road trip. We weren’t very good.”

Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist for the Senators (23-27-3), who have lost three of four and won 4-2 at the Lightning on Monday. Korpisalo made 31 saves.

“It was a hard-fought battle, but I thought we were a little slow off the mark,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We played better in the third, I thought that was our best. [Florida] has a good hockey team and we had a chance of winning it. We battled hard. A couple of mistakes cost us.”

Ekblad gave Florida a 1-0 lead 19 seconds into the game, scoring from the right face-off circle on a give-and-go with Carter Verhaeghe.

“In a 9-2 game, there are a lot of plays to be made and you sometimes get stuck in the playmaking way of doing things,” said Ekblad, who missed the game Saturday with an undisclosed injury. “We just wanted to get pucks out, play a simple game, do all the cliche hockey things we do that makes it good. We could have stretched it out a little, but that’s the muck we want to be in.”

Montour made it 2-0 at 17:01 of the second period. He intercepted a clearing pass in the Ottawa zone, had a wrist shot blocked and scored on his own rebound from the high slot.

“The offensive production may not have been there this year, but I am getting chances,” said Montour, who has scored in consecutive games and has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 40 games. “You have to keep working when you hit posts or the goalie keeps making big saves. Keep working, and eventually it is going to come.”

Ottawa scored twice in the third period to tie the game.

Chabot cut it to 2-1 at 5:36. He picked off a loose puck in the offensive zone, got it back after his own blocked shot and beat Bobrovsky over the shoulder from above the left circle.

Tim Stützle tied it 2-2 at 8:46, driving up the ice after a stop by Korpisalo, splitting two Florida defenders and avoiding a poke check from Bobrovsky before scoring through the five-hole.

“We knew, coming in, that we were playing the best team in the League right now,” Chabot said. “There is a reason they are having so much success. The start was what it was. But we came back in the third, we believed. Every one of us would rather go home with a win, but we have some positives we can take out of this loss.”

NOTES: Ekblad scored the second-fastest goal to start a game by a Florida defenseman. Robert Svehla scored 14 seconds into a 3-3 tie against the Carolina Hurricanes on Dec. 5, 1998. … Montour scored his 33rd goal with the Panthers, tying Mike Matheson and Ed Jovanovski for the sixth-most by a Panthers defenseman. Ekblad is first with 115.