The Florida Panthers winning streak is at six after Anton Lundell scored 1:35 into overtime to give the Cats a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators.
After a taking a pass from Matthew Tkachuk just above the left circle, Lundell moved down low before beating Joonas Korpisalo high, short-side for the winning goal. Brandon Montour, who scored earlier, drew the secondary assist.
After pouring in nine goals on Saturday, the Panthers opened the scoring just 19 seconds into the game when Carter Verhaeghe got the puck behind the net from Sam Reinhart and lost possession to Aaron Ekblad as he came back in front. Ekblad then worked a pretty give-and-go with Verhaeghe before sweeping a shot past Korpisalo from the lower right circle. The goal was the second fastest to start a game by a Florida defenseman in franchise history.
Montour got his unassisted goal with 2:59 remaining in the second period. After knocking down Shane Pinto’s clearing attempt following Korpisalo’s denial of Evan Rodrigues, Montour’s first attempt was blocked by Pinto. The puck came right back to him and he was able to fire home the second chance for his fourth of the season. That’s goals in back-to-back games (and five total points) for Montour.
Down by two in the third, Ottawa would not go quietly into the chilly South Florida night.
Thomas Chabot would spin away from Lundell after the center blocked his shot and then solve Sergei Bobrovsky from a better shooting position to halve the deficit at the 5:36 mark.
Chabot would combine with former Panther Claude Giroux to set up Tim Stutzle’s game-tying goal 3:10 later. Stutzle would go end-to-end, knifing his way through Niko Mikkola and Montour before backhanding the puck five-hole to complete the spectacular rush.
Both goaltenders played well with Bobrovsky making 28 saves, including nine of the high-danger variety, to collect his 28th win, while Korpisalo delivered a quality start in defeat, finishing with 31 saves to earn his team a third point in its Sunshine State back-to-back.
Getting the extra point against the Senators put the Cats back in first place, one point better than the Boston Bruins, with both teams at 56 games played. The Panthers will get the day off before they try to equal the NHL record of 12 consecutive road wins tomorrow night at PNC Arena against a difficult opponent in the Carolina Hurricanes.
Law & Order
- First Star Anton Lundell’s first game-winning goal of the campaign extended his point streak to a season-high four games. Lundell has four goals and two assists over the span.
- With his primary assist on Lundell’s marker, Matthew Tkachuk upped his point streak to six games. Tkachuk has racked up 4 goals and 10 helpers since he was held off the score sheet by the Philadelphia Flyers on February 6.
- Ottawa’s Drake Batherson matched Tkachuk with a game-high six shots on goal in 15:05 of ice time.
- Sergei Bobrovsky won his seventh-straight start. He has given two goals or less in all seven of those games. The hot spell has lowered Bobrovsky’s GAA down to 2.39.
- Sam Reinhart was credited with an assist, two shots, two blocks and a hit. Reinhart was second among Panther forwards (behind Aleksander Barkov’s 21:20) in ice time with 20:24.