Panthers Power Play Buzzes In Physical Game With 10 Ejections And Win Over Ottawa Senators

Ottawa, ON – The Florida Panthers began their three-game Canadian road trip with a 5-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators (with 10 ejections between both teams), snapping a two-game skid.

Sam Reinhart had two goals, both on the power play, while Aleksander Barkov notched three assists.

Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 20 shots he faced, including three high-danger scoring chances.

Everyone Gets A Penalty!

At one point, Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice had to count how many players he still had on his bench. Backup goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who usually sits on the end of the bench as most goalies do, got to sit in the middle with how much space he had.

How did we get here? Let’s go back to the end of the second period and work our way down.

After the second period ended, a scrum ensued between both teams, with Senators defenseman Travis Hamonic going over to Matthew Tkachuk and physically engaging with him. After a brief skirmish, Tkachuk was assessed a two-minute penalty for roughing. 

A few minutes into the third period, Senators forward Zack MacEwen darted across the ice to grab Tkachuk from behind and bring him to the ground. With Tkachuk nowhere near the puck at the time and the pre-meditated nature of the fight, MacEwen was given a match penalty that resulted in a five-minute major against the Senators.

Tkachuk got into another fight a few minutes later, this time with Jake Sanderson. 

But the real fun came with 7:22 left in the game. Brady Tkachuk, younger brother of Matthew, clipped goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s pad on a breakaway shot attempt. Brady was immediately accosted by Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, and within seconds every Panther and Senator currently on the ice converged into the corner to grab a guy and fight.

Tonight’s matchup between the Senators and Panthers got a little chippy 😳

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— Referee Magazine (@RefereeMag) November 28, 2023

“Every player on the ice has a 10-minute misconduct, among other penalties”.

That’s what referee Garrett Rank announced to the crowd at Canadian Tire Centre after the melee finally ended. Rourke Chartier, Erik Brannstrom, Brady Tkachuk, Travis Hamonic, Drake Batherson, Ryan Lomberg, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Kevin Stenlund, Jonah Gadjovich, Dmitry Kulikov. Each of these players. Ejected. 

All told, the teams combined for 167 minutes of penalty time, with 149 of them coming in the final period.

Power Play Looked Impressive

After their 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Nov. 22, Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said the power play was “not in sync” just yet.

It was a power play that had just gotten back defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Eklbad – key contributors on the man advantage in past seasons – just a few games prior. At that point, the Panthers had gone 1-for-10 on the power play in the first three games with Montour and Ekblad back in the lineup after rehabbing injuries sustained during last year’s playoff run.

In Monday’s 5-0 win over the Ottawa Senators, the power play went 3-for-7, scoring on their first three tries.

Montour recorded his first point of the season when his shot from the blue line was rebounded by Aleksander Barkov who passed it to Sam Bennett for the power play goal to put the Panthers up 3-0 in the second period.

The Panthers got their first goal 23 seconds into their power play when Matthew Tkachuk fed Sam Reinhart from the red line for the goal. Reinhart scored again on the second 5-on-4 when Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo misplayed a puck behind the net, allowing Reinhart to take the puck and pull a wraparound to bury it.