Mike Condon made twenty-four saves to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 2-0 win over the Florida Panthers at Canadian Tire Center on Saturday night.
The loss dropped the Cats record to 1-2-1 on its current six-game road trip that still has stops to make in Boston and Philadelphia.
Ottawa scored twice in a 19-second span of the first period to provide the game’s only goals.
Erik Karlsson opened the scoring at the 6:46 mark, taking advantage of some shoddy coverage from both Aaaron Ekbald and Jussi Jokinen to rap Ryan Dzingel’s centering pass by Roberto Luongo. Jean-Gabriel Pageau picked up the second assist on the play.
The Senators quickly added to the lead when the tic-tac-toe passing of Chris Wideman and Mike Hoffman opened up the Florida defense, giving Derick Brassard the time and space needed to beat Luongo.
After getting out-shot 9-5 in the opening frame, the Panthers tightened up and limited the Senators to just 12 shots the rest of the way, but they couldn’t find a way to solve Condon, who was wisely acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 2, at the other end. The 26-year-old netminder robbed rookie Denis Malgin late in the game to keep the Panthers off the board.
Florida’s record under interim coach Tom Rowe now stands at 1-1-1. The Cats have only managed to score three times in those three games.
Law & Order
- Mike Condon’s shutout was his second of the season. Condon has appeared in six games and has posted a 3-1-1 record and 1.66 GAA since joining the Sens.
- After an 0 for 6 performance in Detroit, the Panthers went 0 for 4 on the power play in Ottawa. The Cats PK was impressive, killing off all seven Ottawa opportunities.
- Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov, Jaromir Jagr and Jason Demers each finished the game with three shots on goal. Condon denied Trocheck on a second period breakaway.
- Roberto Luongo made 19 stops and lowered his GAA to 2.04. Luongo’s record now stands at 9-7-1 with a .929 save percentage. Goal support needed, stat.
- Rookie blueliner Andreas Englund dished out a game-high seven hits while making his NHL debut for the Senators.
- Florida defenseman Jakub Kindl hit a nice milestone, playing in his 300th career tilt. Kindl finished with a -1 rating for the fourth straight game.
- Stop by Silver Seven for more on Ottawa’s whitewashing of Florida./