Senators shut out the Panthers 

The Senators defeated the Florida Pathers today on a 40-save shutout from Anton Forsberg and a formidible special teams effort in a Saturday matinee at Canadian Tire Centre.

Jake Sanderson opened the scoring with 8:39 remaining in the first on a one-timer from Pinto. The play started with a face-off win by Pinto who collected the puck to the left of Sergei Bobrovsky before taking it around the back of the net and finding Sanderson open.

Moments later Carter Verhaeghe was called for a tripping penalty sending the Sens to the powerplay for the first time. With the man advantage the Senators applied pressure until Drake Batherson put a puck through crease and along the goal line just staying out. Seconds later Batherson took advantage of his next chance tipping a Dylan Cozen’s shot to give the Senators a two-goal lead.

The first period came to an end with the Panthers doubling-up the Sens with 14 shots to Ottawa's seven. A pair of the biggest saves came from Anton Forsberg late while the team was killing a penalty against Nikolas Matinpalo.

The Senators killed the penalty to open the second period and found themselves back on the power play, but this time unable to generate the same amount of pressure or offense.

The teams traded chances through the second until the midway mark when Forsberg was put to the test stopping Seth Jones on a dangerous two-on-one.

As the second period drew to a close the Panthers were able to put a puck behind Forsberg on what would have been the 36th shot of the game. However, the call on the ice was that it was deflected by a high-stick and the replay confirmed it to be no goal.

The third period opened with Florida pressing hard to get their first goal of the game with four shots in the first two minutes of play. As the period progressed the Senators best chance came with 9 minutes left in the period when a Sanderson shot from the point almost ended up being a carbon copy of the game's first goal, but Bobrovsky got his glove on the shot this time.

The battle continued down to the wire until Matthew Highmore put the game on ice with an empty net goal with only 2:20 left to play in the game.

The win gives the Senators 88 points on the season heading in to the final two weeks of the season. Fans can join us tomorrow at Canadian Tire Centre for as we face-off against another potential wildcard team in the Columbus Blue Jackets by getting their tickets here.

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