Senators try to avert third straight loss at Panthers

The Ottawa Senators were rolling until a visit to the state of Florida seriously halted that momentum.

If the Senators are to avoid a third straight loss, and enter the 4 Nations Face-Off break on a positive note, they must find a way to beat the surging Florida Panthers on the road Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla.

Ottawa outscored its opponents 21-8 during a five-game winning streak that ended with Tuesday's 4-3 loss at Tampa Bay. In a scheduling quirk, the Senators faced the Lightning again on the road Thursday and fell 5-1.

Those back-to-back defeats allowed Tampa Bay to pull even with the Senators for third place in the Atlantic Division entering play Friday, leaving Ottawa in the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. However, for the moment, the focus is simply on bouncing back before the NHL's hiatus for the four-country, in-season tournament beginning next week.

"(We'd won) five in a row," Ottawa forward Drake Batherson said. "... If we can get a win in Florida on Saturday, that would be a good closeout before the break."

Tim Stutzle -- who has two goals and eight assists during a seven-game point streak -- scored twice and Linus Ullmark made 31 saves during a 3-1 home victory over the Panthers on Oct. 10. However, Ottawa is 0-4-1 at Florida since an 8-2 victory Dec. 14, 2021.

The reigning champion Panthers have also outscored opponents 17-4 during a four-game home winning streak.

Overall, Florida is amid a 7-3-0 stretch following Thursday's 3-2 victory at St. Louis. Matthew Tkachuk's second goal of the night, the tiebreaker with 11.8 seconds left in regulation, capped a three-point night for the Panthers star who has seven goals with six assists in the last seven contests.

"He's a driver," teammate Sam Reinhart, who has two goals with six assists in five games, told the Panthers' website about Tkachuk. "He's the heartbeat when he's going like that. It seems like when the moment gets bigger, he rises to the occasion."

Saturday's matchup offers another installment of Tkachuk versus Tkachuk. Matthew's brother, Ottawa star Brady Tkachuk, ranks third on the team with 43 points, but was blanked in both games at Tampa Bay. The brothers each recorded an assist during the October meeting.

Florida's Spencer Knight stopped 20 of 22 shots Thursday, and he is 5-2-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage since the calendar turned to 2025. Meanwhile, No. 1 Sergei Bobrovsky could be back in the Panthers' goal looking to rebound from allowing four goals during a 6-3 loss at Washington on Tuesday -- after giving up just seven goals while winning his previous four starts.

For Ottawa, Ullmark stopped 34 of 37 shots during Tuesday's loss to the Lightning. It was his first game since Dec. 22, when he left with a back injury. Teammate Anton Forsberg has allowed four goals in two of his last three starts.

It's uncertain if the Senators' Shane Pinto, who has 11 goals and 11 assists in 46 games, will miss a second straight contest due to an upper-body injury. Ottawa is also without key forward Josh Norris, who suffered a mid-body injury earlier this month.

--Field Level Media