The rest of the opening period remained scoreless, despite both teams trading power play opportunities. The Senators headed into the first intermission up 1-0, while a late penalty to the Panthers meant the Senators had over a minute of power play time to open the second period.
Tying the game at 1-1 was the other Tkachuk, when Matthew Tkachuk scored his 22nd goal of the season at 6:18 into the second. Like the Senators’ goal, this one came on the power play.
With 8:24 to play in the second period, the Panthers took their first lead of the game when Aleksander Barkov scored his 14th goal of the season on a delayed penalty call against the Senators.
Five minutes later, the Panthers doubled their lead to two at 3-1 when Gustav Forsling scored his eighth goal of the season.
A minute later, Florida scored again to make it 4-1 late in the second period when Sam Bennett scored his 18th goal of the season at 17:58.
Following the late push by the Panthers, the Senators headed into the second intermission trailing by three.
After a scoreless majority of the third period, the Senators pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker as they fought to erase the three-goal defecit. Unfortunately, they were unable to get one back as Anton Lundell scored his 13th goal of the season into the empty net to make it 5-1 for the Panthers with just over a minute remaining.
Neither team scored for the rest of the period as the Senators lost their third straight. Tonight’s game marked the Senators’ last prior to the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Ottawa will return to the ice on February 22 when they take on the Montreal Canadiens at home at 7:00 p.m. ET. Tickets to the game are available HERE for purchase.
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