The roster-ravaged Florida Panthers continued to sputter and got blanked 3-0 by Anton Forsberg and the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre, despite putting 40 shots on the backup goaltender.
Ottawa opened the scoring when Ridley Greig’s strong forecheck forced Seth Jones to gag the puck up to Shane Pinto. Pinto passed to Jake Sanderson, who ripped a shot from the left circle by Sergei Bobrovsky 11:21 into the first period.
The Senators would double the lead at the 14:17 mark with Carter Verhaeghe off for tripping Tim Stützle. After failing to convert into an empty net, Drake Batherson tipped Dylan Cozen’s shot over Bobrovsky’s glove seconds later. Sanderson would collect another point with the secondary helper.
With nothing to show for all their shots on goal, the Panthers pulled the Bobrovksy with three minutes left, only to see Matthew Highmore find the empty net with lone assist going to Thomas Chabot with 2:20 left on the clock.
The Panthers played well, but with their offense running on fumes, Jones’ costly turnover and Verhaeghe’s bad penalty shortly afterwards were too much to overcome with Forsberg on the top of his game.
Florida, who clinched a playoff spot thanks to the New York Rangers shutout loss to New Jersey, will try to snap its ugly four-game losing streak when they close the road trip this evening against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
Law & Order
- First Star Anton Forsberg posted his third shutout and collected his tenth win of the season as the Senators reduced their magic number to four points.
- A.J. Greer came to play for the Panthers, finishing with a game-high six shots on goal and a game-high seven hits.
- Jake Sanderson scored for the third straight game to stablish a new career-high with his 11th goal. The 22-year-old Sanderson leads Ottawa’s defensemen in scoring with 53 points.
- Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 of 21 shots and fell to 31-18-2 despite lowering his goals against average down to 2.44.
- Paul Maurice became the first head coach in franchise history to guide the Cats to three-straight postseason appearances.
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