Florida Panthers Lose to Senators, and Possibly Lose Barkov
Aleksander Barkov left game with scary looking injury in the final minutes as Florida Panthers lose 3-2 to Ottawa Senators.
A comeback attempt in their first road game of the season ended in disaster for the Florida Panthers.
As captain Aleksander Barkov was rushing back to keep Tim Stutzle from scoring an empty-net goal, he got tangled up with the Ottawa Senators star and went into the boards, hard, feet-first.
At the end of the day, the Panthers suffered a 3-1 loss and lost their captain after he was helped off the ice following the empty-net goal.
Coach Paul Maurice did not have an update on Barkov’s status moving forward following Thursday night’s game.
“He’s not going to get looked at here tonight and probably tomorrow as well,” Maurice said.
Niko Mikkola sent the Panthers to the penalty kill 4:52 into the first period and the Senators went right to work.
Tim Stützle ripped a wrist shot past Sergei Bobrovksy’s glove side a minute into the man advantage to put the Senators ahead 1-0.
Less than five minutes later, Shane Pinto took advantage of a Dmitry Kulikov turnover and wired home a wrist shot of his home on the ensuing 2-on-1 rush.
The Panthers were able to slow things down for the most part after giving up multiple rush chances like that one in the first period, but they created a big hole to climb out of.
With 4:12 to go in a very slow second period, Gustav Forsling brought them back within a goal with a slap shot form the point aided by a screen from Matthew Tkachuk.
It came on the heels of a big penalty kill
The Panthers made multiple big pushes for a comeback in the third period.
Mackie Samoskevich had a Grade-A chance for his first NHL goal from the slot to tie the game: Linus Ullmark came up with the save.
Mikkola had a wide open net in front of him, albeit from a wide angle, off of a Matthew Tkachuk rebound after he drove into the slot with a nice in-and-out move: He hit the post.
The Panthers had the Senators pinned in their own zone for nearly two minutes, including another golden opportunity on a wrap-around by Samoskevich, ending with five minutes to go in the third: Ullmark turned away shot after shot.
An Aaron Ekblad tripping penalty with 4:54 to go in the third period killed the momentum for Florida merely seconds after they had Ottawa pinned in its own zone.
The Panthers killed off the penalty but Stutzle sealed the game off with an empty netter.
STORY TO BE UPDATED WITH QUOTES AND MORE SOON