Anton Forsberg (40 saves), Senators blank Panthers

Anton Forsberg made 40 saves for his third shutout of the season and eighth of his career and the host Ottawa Senators defeated the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Defenseman Jake Sanderson had a goal and an assist and Drake Batherson and Matthew Highmore also scored for the Senators (41-29-6, 88 points), who won their second straight and lead the Eastern Conference wild-card race.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots for the Panthers (44-28-4, 92 points), who have lost four in a row (0-3-1) and remained one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay plays at the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

Ottawa led 2-0 after the first period, despite being outshot 13-7 in the first 20 minutes.

Sanderson opened the scoring 8:39 into the game with a one-timer from the left faceoff circle. It was his third consecutive game with a goal.

The Senators are 32-6 when they score the first goal.

Batherson scored a power-play goal with 5:43 left in the first when he tipped in Dylan Cozens' shot.

Forsberg stopped Jesper Boqvist on a short-handed breakaway a little over two minutes into the second period and made a spectacular pad save on Seth Jones on a 2-on-1 rush eight minutes into the middle period.

An apparent goal by Florida's Evan Rodrigues was immediately waved off because of a high stick with 1:42 left in the second period. Replay confirmed the call.

The Senators went the first 8 1/2 minutes of the second period without a shot and were outshot 12-5 in the period .

Forsberg made a key save on Tomas Nosek's tip attempt early in the third period.

Highmore added an empty-net marker with 2:20 left for his first goal in 34 games and second of the season.

Both captains were out because of upper-body injuries.

The Panthers' Aleksander Barkov missed his second game and also won't play Sunday at the Detroit Red Wings, while the Senators' Brady Tkachuk sat out his third contest.

Brady Tkachuk's brother, Florida's Matthew Tkachuk, remains out with the lower-body injury he suffered in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice remains fourth all-time among coaches with 913 wins. He is one shy of tying Barry Trotz for third place.

--Field Level Media