RECAP: Senators ride red-hot power play to win over Panthers

OTTAWA --Suffering a setback in their playoff push, the Florida Panthers surrendered three power-play goals in a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday.
"Quite frankly at 5-on-5 I thought we dominated them for most of the game," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. "Special teams definitely played a big factor tonight, and not in our favor."

He's right.
At 5-on-5, the Panthers led the Senators in shot attempts (49-25), shots on goal (28-14), scoring chances (19-10), high-danger shot attempts (10-2) and goals (2-1), per NaturalStatTrick.com.
But on the power play, Ottawa went 3-for-4, while Florida went 0-for-4.
"I thought we were pretty good for most of the night," Tkachuk said. "We just got into some penalty trouble. They capitalized on their power plays, and we didn't on ours. They definitely crushed us in the whole special teams battle tonight."
Opening the scoring for the Senators, Brady Tkachuk teed up a pass from Thomas Chabot and blasted a one-timer into the twine from the right circle to make it 1-0 at 9:02 of the first period.
Making back-to-back exceptional saves in rapid succession, Sergei Bobrovsky helped keep the Senators from striking again soon after when he denied Alex DeBrincat on a breakaway before sprawling out to rob Shane Pinto on the ensuing rebound with a glorious glove save.
On the power play, the Senators doubled their lead when, after Eric Staal's stick was broken and Gustav Forsling had taken a puck up high, Erik Brannstrom took advantage of the chaos and fired a shot past Bobrovsky from near the bottom of the right circle to make it 2-0 at 18:55.
In the second period, Forsling got the Panthers on the board when he one-timed a pass off the boards from Sam Reinhart through traffic and past Mads Sogaard to make it 2-1 at 5:58. Getting that goal back for Ottawa later on, DeBrincat scored on the power play to make it 3-1 at 19:22.
Finding the back of the net for a second time, Forsling, who has taken another step forward this season, cut into Florida's deficit when he dropped to one knee and unloaded a one-timer from the point that sailed past Sogaard and into the cage to make it 3-2 at 9:15 of the third period.

"He's been so good all year," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of Forsling, who's notched a career-high 38 points (12 goals, 26 assists). "He's played in every game. His confidence is growing. He just keeps getting better. He's got a great shot. We're just starting to see it."
Back on the power play after the Panthers were whistled for a faceoff violation, Tim Stützle beat Bobrovsky with a blistering one-timer from the right circle to put the Senators up 4-2 at 17:37. At 18:30, Pinto put the game away when he scored on the empty net to push Ottawa's lead to 5-2.
Falling to 36-31-7 and sitting three points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with one more game played, the Panthers will look to snap out of their four-game skid when they visit the high-flying Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
"We're playing one of the best teams in the league in a few days," Tkachuk said. "It definitely doesn't get easier when it comes to opponents, that's for sure. Hopefully we can continue on some of the good things we did tonight, beat Toronto, and then see what happens from there."

CATS QUOTES

"The next one's very important. This is obviously not the result we dreamt about coming to the rink today. There are some things that we can build on from this game."- Matthew Tkachuk
"All the rest of the games are really big for us. We just have to cool down here, get to the bus and start focusing on [the next] game." - Eetu Luostarinen
"I was proud of the way they played tonight. They played their [butts] off. More importantly, they seemed to find another level as a team in terms of being engaged as a team. I thought they played their [butts] off tonight. I've got no fault on them."- Paul Maurice

CATS NOTES

• Gustav Forsling recorded the third multi-goal game of his career.
  - Brandon Montour led the Panthers with 27:29 of ice time.
  - Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 14 of 15 shots at even strength.
  - Radko Gudas led the Panthers with five hits.
  - Aleksander Barkov's point streak was snapped at 10 games.
  - Florida led 22-7 in shot attempts when Matthew Tkachuk was on the ice at 5-on-5.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (36-31-7) will continue their road trip with a tough test against the Maple Leafs (44-20-9) at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.