OTTAWA – The Florida Panthers will have to wait at least a bit longer to punch their ticket.
Missing a chance to secure their playoff berth, the defending Stanley Cup champions suffered a 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.
Third in the Atlantic Division at 44-28-4, the Panthers can still lock down their playoff spot later this evening if the Toronto Maple Leafs manage to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“There would be a big chunk of our game that looks the way it’s supposed to look,” head coach Paul Maurice said of his team’s performance in Ottawa. “I thought our gap was really good. The hunt-backs were good. We were pretty direct to their net. We made a handful of small mistakes at 5-on-5, but not many to worry about. The game was played right.”
Once again playing well enough to win, the Panthers just couldn’t finish in Ottawa.
Despite basically having an entire All-Star team on the injured list, the Panthers still led the Senators 83-41 in shot attempts and 37-21 in scoring chances, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
“I feel like at 5-on-5 we were the better team,” forward Jesper Boqvist said.
Breaking the ice in their own barn, the Senators took a 1-0 lead when Jake Sanderson teed up a pass from Shane Pinto and blasted a one-timer into the net at 11:21 of the first period.
On the power play, the Senators doubled their lead when Drake Batherson got a piece of a one-timer from Dylan Cozens and tipped it past Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 2-0 at 14:17.
Despite leading 14-7 in shots on goal, the Panthers were in a hole after 20 minutes.
“A lot of good stuff, but we’ve got to get the points,” Boqvist said.
Nearly cutting into their deficit in the second period, the Panthers were denied a goal when Anton Forsberg robbed Seth Jones on a shot from in close with an outstanding glove save.
Later, Forsberg flashed leather again on a one-timer from Sam Reinhart.
With less than two minutes left in the middle frame, the Panthers thought they cut their deficit in half when Evan Rodrigues whacked a flying puck into the back of the twine.
Unfortunately, the goal was immediately waved off due to a high stick.
Deserving of a goal, the Panthers registered 1.61 expected goals in the second period.
After pulling Bobrovsky for the extra attacker late in the third period, Matthew Highmore scored an empty-net goal to extend Ottawa’s lead to 3-0 with 2:20 remaining in regulation.
Not going down without a fight – literally – a few scrums took place before the buzzer.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” forward Jonah Gadjovich said. “We want to get the wins at this point of the year, but our product is right. I think our game is good. We’re playing the right way. We’re doing what we want to do, just not getting the final outcome that we want.”
THEY SAID IT
“We were good in the areas we were trying to be good at tonight.” – Paul Maurice
“We’ve just got to keep working and create those chances.” – Jesper Boqvist
“We have to focus on the little things and playing the right way. The outcome will take care of itself.” – Jonah Gadjovich
CATS STATS
- The Panthers finished with 4.31 expected goals, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
- The Panthers led 15-2 in shot attempts at 5-on-5 when the line of Brad Marchand, Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell was deployed.
- Anton Lundell won a team-high 11 faceoffs.
- A.J. Greer recorded a team-high six shots on goal.
- Jaycob Megna blocked a team-high two shots.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Panthers will close out their final multi-game road trip of the regular season in less than 24 hours when they battle the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET.
To find a place to watch the game in South Florida, click HERE.
