Lyon makes 56 saves, Panthers top Senators to keep pace in East wild card

Alex Lyon made 56 saves for the Florida Panthers in a 7-2 win against the Ottawa Senators at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Thursday.

Lyon, making his fifth consecutive start with Sergei Bobrovsky dealing with a non-COVID illness, came within one save of the Panthers record, set by Roberto Luongo against the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 27, 2002.
"Things kind of worked out tonight," Lyon said. "I was feeling good early and made some good-feeling saves early, and that's kind of a nice win to set the table for the game."

Brandon Montour had a goal and three assists to tie his franchise single-game record for points by a defenseman for the Panthers (41-31-7), who extended their season-high winning streak to five games.
The Panthers remained tied with the New York Islanders for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Islanders won 6-1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning; the Penguins defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-1 on Thursday.
Aleksander Barkov had two goals and an assist, Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist, and Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad each had two assists.
"He was unbelievable, the lion," Barkov said of Lyon. "Obviously we didn't play our best game, but they pretty much gave us all the chances to win, and we were pretty opportunistic."

Claude Giroux and Ridly Greig scored for the Senators (37-35-7), who were eliminated from playoff contention. Leevi Merilainen started but was pulled 1:24 into the second period after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Mads Sogaard made 14 saves in relief.
"It was a weird game overall," Ottawa forward Drake Batherson said. "Obviously we had lots of shots (58), a few good looks, and maybe if those go in it's a different game. But yeah, just flush that one. It was a weird one."
Montour gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 7:59 of the first period with a shot from the slot before Barkov made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 14:03.
Barkov made it 3-0 at 1:24 of the second period with a short-handed goal.
Giroux cut it to 3-1 at 4:25 before Florida scored four more goals to lead 7-1 after two periods despite being outshot 41-22.
"We had some bad bounces there," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "Obviously there's a few that we'd like back, but their goalie put a clinic on. I don't think that's a 7-1 game, I think everyone knows that. They had some tips and they had some things, and we've got to find ways to score."

Reinhart made it 4-1 at 7:48 with a power-play goal when he tipped Montour's shot from the point before Eetu Luostarinen made it 5-1 with another power-play goal at 9:25.
Nick Cousins pushed it to 6-1 at 15:38 when he scored right after Florida killed off a two-minute 5-on-3 power play.
Forsling extended the lead to 7-1 at 17:00.
Greig scored at 16:18 of the third period for the 7-2 final.
Lyon is 5-0-0 with seven goals allowed in his past five starts.
"One guy that was dialed in from start to finish straight through regardless of what was going on in the game was Alex, and he was good at all areas," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "I'm happy for him because he's worked really hard to be that good from his first tour up (from the American Hockey League) and then coming back in. He comes to the rink at even keel but works very, very hard at his game. So, I'm happy for him because he's earned it. It hasn't been easy and good for him, and then, of course, good for us."
NOTES:Ottawa forward Austin Watson left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury. There was no update. … The Senators (88) and Panthers (78) combined for 166 penalty minutes. There were eight majors and 10 misconduct penalties, including game misconducts against Smith, Senators forward Brady Tkachuk, and Panthers defenseman Marc Staal. … Montour had four points (one goal, three assists) in a 5-3 win at the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 6. … Along with Montour's four points and the two each for Ekblad and Forsling, Staal and Radko Gudas each had an assist to give the Panthers a franchise-record 10 points from their defensemen. … Matthew Tkachuk has an NHL career-high 105 points (39 goals, 66 assists). He had 104 (42 goals, 62 assists) with the Calgary Flames last season.