Ottawa Senators swamp Florida Panthers in 5-1 NHL blowout
Bobby Butler lit the lamp twice and Craig Anderson stopped 23 shots to help the Ottawa Senators swamp Florida Panthers in a 5-1 blowout at Scotiabank Place on Wednesday night.
Butler, who has five goals in his previous five contests, notched his first goal midway through the opening period. He tallied his second goal of the game midway through the middle frame to give the Senators their second two-goal edge. “I just need to keep
playing as I can and keep putting the puck towards the net, and hopefully good things will keep happening,” Butler said.
Jason Spezza scored a goal and two assists for Ottawa, which snapped a 10-game winless streak. The Senators got their first home win since a 3-1 victory over Pittsburgh Penguins on 26th December.
Anderson said that despite the losing streak of the Senators, when he entered the club, the atmosphere was very positive and no one was getting on themselves or on other teammates as he had expected. “You would never have known that they were on a losing
streak,” he said, hinting that the positive attitude helped them keep their morale high.
Ryan Shannon tallied a goal and had an assist in the Senators’ second straight victory overall. The team had not won two consecutive games since 23-26 December.
Chris Higgins notched the lone goal for the Panthers, who have dropped four of five games. He blamed the lack of offensive for the loss. He said that his team let the Ottawa Senators skate out of the zone too easily and their goalie did not have enough pressure
on him. “It seems like we had one shot and they were out of the zone,” he said.
Scott Clemmensen gave up five goals on 34 shots in the defeat. “They were better than us in their end, they were better than us in our end,” Clemmensen said. He did not discredit his team altogether tough and said that they had done some good things, but
for the most part, the Senators did deserve to win.
At the 11:13 mark into the play, Butler put Senators on the board when he blasted a shot from the left circle that deflected off Mike Weaver and beat the Florida netminder.
Ottawa took a 2-0 lead when Shannon scored a power-play goal just 36 seconds into the second frame.
The Florida Panthers cut the deficit in half in the fifth minute of the middle period when Chris Higgins tallied his 11th goal of the season.
However, the Senators restored their two-goal lead at 10:38 into the second period when Butler got the disc from the scrum along the right board and blasted a snap shot that beat Clemmensen. “Bobby’s playing great right now. He’s got some confidence, scoring
some goals and making some great plays,” Ottawa forward Milan Michalek said.
Michalek gave the Senators a 4-1 lead with his 15th goal of the season at 16:49 into the third period. Spezza made it 5-1 with his 11th goal at 18:38.
Anderson saved all eight shots he faced in the third frame to secure the victory.
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