Matthew Tkachuk produced three points for the second straight game to power the Florida Panthers to a 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators at Amerant Bank Arena in the final game for both teams before the 4-Nations Face-Off break.
The Panthers got off to fast start, registering nine of the game’s first ten shots on goal, but a penalty on Carter Verhaeghe gave the Senators a chance to take the lead and they took full advantage.
Halfway through the power play, former Panther Claude Giroux dove to the ice to keep the puck in, followed by a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play involving Tim Stützle, Drake Batherson, and Brady Tkachuk that Matthew’s unmarked little brother finished off by beating Sergei Bobrovsky five-hole at the 6:38 mark. The assist extended Stützle’s career-high point streak to eight games
Florida would test Linus Ullmark 16 times in the opening frame and come up empty.
The elder Tkachuk finally solved Ullmark 6:18 into the second, with Artem Zub off for slashing. After Aleksander Barkov sent puck around the boards to Sam Reinhart behind the net, he backhanded it to Tkachuk, who skated from the corner into the right circle and fired off a wrister that found space between the keeper’s glove and leg pad.
Thanks to delayed penalty on Ridley Grieg, the Panthers were able to ice a sixth skater and forge ahead when Tkachuk took a soft shot from the point that Alexsander Barkov deflected past a helpless Ullmark at 11:36. Verhaeghe drew the second helper on Barkov’s 14th of the season.
After Brady Tkachuk hit the side of the net, Nate Schmidt collected the rebound and then hit an activated Gustav Forsling, who flew up the middle of the ice and blasted a powerful wrist shot by Ullmark fromn the high slot to put the Cats up by two with 3:34 left in the frame
The Panthers would score off a 3-on-2 foray 1:32 later to essentially end it. Skating from right to left as he gained the line, Evan Rodrigues left the puck for Tkachuk, who set up Sam Bennett for a successful one-timer from the right circle for his 18th goal of the campaign.
Before the period ended Bobrovsky made a stupendous blocker save on Ottawa’s Tkachuk to keep the Cats up by three.
Florida held the Senators to nine shots in the third and Anton Lundell completed the scoring with an unassisted shorthanded empty-netter with 1:22 left on the clock.
Hats off to Panthers for emptying the tank and crushing Ottawa to head into the break on a high note. Ullmark entered the game on an eight-game regular season winning streak against Florida, so putting four past him in the second period was a most welcome sight. The Cats have won five of their last six games, and this latest victory, coupled with Toronto’s 2-1 loss in Vancouver, has them three points up on the Maple Leafs for first place in Atlantic Division.
Law & Order
- First Star Matthew Tkachuk has racked up seven goals and six assists during his six-game goal streak. After producing just 12 points in January, Tkachuk has 10 in just five February games. He pulled within five points of Sam Reinhart for the team lead in scoring.
- Speaking of Reinhart, his assist on Tkachuk’s first goal was the 600th point of his career. It took Reinhart, who is in the midst of a six-game assist streak, 753 games to hit the milestone.
- Like Tkachuk and Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov is also on six-game point streak. He has collected 11 points during the run and has delivered multi-point performances in four of his last five outings.
- Brady Tkachuk scored Ottawa’s only marker and could have easily had a hat trick. He finished the tilt with a game-high 11 shots on goal.
- Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves to post his 23rd win of the season, which is fifth-most in the NHL. Bobrovsky upped his save pecentage to .902 and lowered his GAA to 2.66.