RECAP: Ottawa Senators 3, Florida Panthers 0
The Florida Panthers suffer a shutout loss at the hands of Anton Forsberg, fail to clinch a playoff spot on their own accord.
The Florida Panthers did all they could with captain Aleksander Barkov, among a long list of others, out of the lineup to clinch a playoff spot on their own accord, but Anton Forsberg had other ideas.
Florida put 40 shots on net on Saturday afternoon, but Ottawa Senators goalie stopped them all in a 3-0 victory.
The Panthers needed a win — or at least an overtime loss and some help — to clinch a playoff spot on their own on Saturday. They got tabbed with the regulation loss despite outshooting Ottawa 40-22.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced in the loss for Florida.
They will now have to await the result of the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Columbus Blue Jackets game at 7 p.m. If Columbus loses in any fashion, they’re in. If not, they will have to wait until Sunday to punch their ticket to the postseason.
Jake Sanderson got the scoring started for Ottawa with 8:39 to go in the second period. Seth Jones turned the puck over to Ridly Greig and he fed Sanderson with a feed that he blasted past Sergei Bobrovsky with a one-timer.
Drake Batherson deflected a Dylan Cozens shot past Bobrovsky on the power play less than three minutes later to give Ottawa the 2-0 led.
The Panthers held the Senators without a shot for the first 10 minutes of the second period — outshooting them 8-0 in the process — but they could not come up with an answer.
Brad Marchand fed Jones with a cross-crease feed on a rush chance near the midway point of the second period but Forsberg came up with a big glove save.
Evan Rodrigues appeared to draw Florida back within a goal with 1:42 to go in the second period when he batted a deflected feed from Mackie Samoskevich past Forsberg, but it was called back because he did so with a high stick.
Florida outshot Ottawa 27-12 leading up to the final minutes of the third period and they could not find an answer.
Matthew Highmore sealed the win with an empty-net for the Senators goal with 2:20 to go.
Florida will finish its four-game road trip and look to gain ground in the Atlantic Division title race on Sunday evening against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Panthers are now four points back of the division-leading Maple Leafs and one point back of the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning with one fewer game remaining. Tampa Bay plays Buffalo on Saturday night at 7 p.m.