Panthers top Senators with big second period

Aleksander Barkov scored two of the five goals in the second period for the Florida Panthers in a 5-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at BB&T Center on Sunday.

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Mike Hoffman had two assists to extend his point streak to 12 games (seven goals, seven assists). It was his first game against Ottawa since he was traded by the Senators to the San Jose Sharks on June 19. The Sharks then traded him two hours later to the Panthers.

Ryan Dzingel scored, and Mike McKenna made 35 saves for Ottawa (7-8-3), which was also playing the second game of a back-to-back after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-4 on Saturday.
Barkov tied it 1-1 at 3:05 of the second on a one-timer in the slot that beat McKenna glove side. Evgenii Dadonov had an assist on the goal to extend his point streak to 11 games (six goals, seven assists).
"They're both skilled and pretty fast, good shots," Dadonov said of playing with Barkov and Hoffman. "Those guys can make everything [happen] on the ice, so it's not hard to play with them."
Huberdeau gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead at 6:01 with a wrist shot on the power play that snuck under McKenna's right arm.
Barkov made it 3-1 at 14:57 on a breakaway, and Brouwer scored 1:06 later on a one-timer in front off a pass from Colton Sceviour from behind the net to extend the lead to 4-1.

Vatrano scored to make it 5-1 at 18:11 when he beat McKenna glove side on a 2-on-1.
"We said in between the first and second period that we needed to get invested emotionally," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "[Barkov's] line led the way, they got the first one, and you could just see every line just follow and start to gain some momentum."
Dzingel gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 18:35 of the first period, beating Reimer glove side with a snap shot from the slot on the power play.
"When you're trailing and you're chasing on a back-to-back like that on the road, it's tough," Senators coach Guy Boucher said.

They said it

"As we kind of continue to grow as a group here, and as a team, we've got to learn to get a little bit more mentally tough. If we go through a stretch where we don't do our jobs, we don't play well or we get bad bounces, whatever it may be, things aren't going our way, we need to figure out a way to kind of tighten up and give ourselves a bit of a gut check here. It seems like when one thing doesn't go our way, we kind of get running around a little bit and we lose focus and we lose a bit of intensity and compete, and they start to pile on." -- Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki
"He's shooting the puck more. The one thing is, he's got a lot more intensity to his game, a lot more urgency. We all know how skilled he is, but when he plays with that kind of determination, I think it makes him an even better player." -- Panthers coach Bob Boughner on Jonathan Huberdeau

Need to know

Ottawa has allowed at least four goals in nine of its past 11 games. … Dzingel has scored a goal in four straight games. … Senators forward Colin White left the game in the second period. Boucher did not have an update on his status. … Keith Yandle had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (two goals, six assists), the longest streak by a defenseman in Panthers history. … Panthers forward Juho Lammikko got his first NHL point with an assist on Brouwer's goal. … Huberdeau has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games.

What's next

Senators:Host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Panthers: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, NBCSP, FS-F, NHL.TV)