Florida Panthers Put Up a Fight Against Ottawa Senators

Monday night’s game between the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators should have been a wholesome reunion between two loving brothers who also happen to be a couple of the best power forwards in the league.

Yeah, right.

The Florida-Ottawa rivalry took yet another turn on Monday night as the two Atlantic Division foes combined for 167 penalty minutes and had 13 players kicked out as the Panthers rolled out of Canada’s capital city with a 5-0 victory.

Things were going smooth enough until there were some fireworks at the end of the second period — with Matthew Tkachuk (surprise!) right in the thick of it.

For the Best Daily Coverage of the Florida Panthers

Get a Subscription to Florida Hockey Now!

Cyber Monday Special: Use George10 at Checkout for $10 Off!

The third period was one for the books as things escalated when Tkachuk took a hit to the head from Zack MacEwen at 5:18 of the third.

Things quickly deteriorated from there.

A few minutes after MacEwan was tossed for going after one Tkachuk, younger brother Brady Tkachuk strolled into Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers took exception as a huge fight broke out behind the net.

Finally, referee Garrett Rank pulled the nuclear option many refs can only dream of: He threw everyone on the ice out of the game.

“Every player on the ice has 10-minute misconducts,” the exasperated Rank said, “among other penalties.”

Florida coach Paul Maurice had a moment of confusion before things were sorted out — and the Panthers ended up on the power play.

“You don’t see that every night,” said captain Sasha Barkov, who had much of the bench to himself for the remainder of the game.

Tempers flare between the Senators & Panthers and every player on the ice is assessed a 10-minute misconduct. 😱 pic.twitter.com/1HI2TrSJCl

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 28, 2023

But hey, there was also a hockey game that had to be played and Florida ended up being the beneficiary of all of these penalties.

“That’s mild. We only got up to 167 minutes there,’’ Maurice said of the penalties. “It has to get into the 250s before it gets too squirrelly.

“Sometimes hockey can get like that, it is what makes the game so darned great. It is graceful, beautiful, physical, and angry all at the same time. It was good. Probably good for both teams. It could be the story of the year.’’

The Panthers were on point on their special teams, going 3-for-7 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill.

Florida’s kill was strong coming into the night — working at the fourth-best clip in the league since Oct. 28 at 86.1 percent clip going into the night — but the power play was a different story.

They were 1-for-15 going into the night and needed a boost.

They got it to start the game.

“We haven’t had so many chances on the power play and it hasn’t gone for us,” Maurice said. “We got a little confidence out of it.”

Sam Reinhart finished off a quick tic-tac-toe play from Barkov and Tkachuk 1:26 into the game to put the Panthers ahead 1-0 on the power play.

Reinhart scored on a wrap-around 5:59 into the second period on another power play to make it 2-0.

The goal brought his total to 15 which momentarily tied him for the league lead with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and Vancouver’s Brock Boeser.

Ottawa challenged the goal for offside but ultimately came up unsuccessful.

Per the NHL: There was no conclusive evidence to determine that Sam Bennett touched the puck in the offensive zone prior to Matthew Tkachuk legally tagging up at the blue line, therefore, the call on the ice stands.

Florida got another power play out of it and immediately took advantage.

Sam Bennett drove in and beat goaltender Joonas Korpisalo with a backhand shot to put the Panthers up 3-0 just 7:09 into the second period.

And as the fracas ensued in the third period, Florida kept putting the pressure on offensively.

Carter Verhaeghe wired a one-timer from Dmitry Kulikov with 8:01 to go to put the Panthers up by four.

Eetu Luostarinen took advantage of a collapsing Ottawa defender, beating Korpisalo with a quick shot from in close with 3:28 to go to make it a 5-goal game.

Sergei Bobrovsky, lost in all of the chaos, earned a 20-save shutout, good for his 40th career shutout and his 370th career win.

He became the fastest goaltender to reach 370 wins in NHL history.

“It was one of those games, a divisional rivalry and a good game overall,’’ Bobrovsky said. “We got two points against a really good team.”

PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida/ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• This Season (Florida Leads 1-0) — At Florida: Panthers 3, Leafs 1 (Oct. 19); April 16. At Toronto: Tuesday; April 1
• Last Season: Toronto won Regular Season Series 3-1; Florida won Eastern Conference Semifinals 4-1
  
• All-time Regular Season Series: Toronto leads 48-37-7, 7 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Thursday at Montreal, 7 p.m.