The Florida Panthers exploded for five first period goals and cruised to 6-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators at Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida opened the scroring just eight seconds in, which is a new franchise record. After Tomas Nosek won to opening draw back to Seth Jones, the defenseman sent the puck languidly into the Ottawa zone off a Senator. A whiff by Linus Ullmark allowed the puck to drift into the slot, where a lucky Noah Gregor fired it off Ullmark’s arm and into the back of the net.

Shane Pinto would high-stick Nosek seven seconds later and the Panthers cashed in on the power play at the 1:06 mark. Matthew Tkachuk took an entry pass from Sam Bennett and then dished off in the middle to Jones, who went back against the grain to Mackie Samoskevich for the pretty forehand punch finish. Two shots, two goals!

The Cats converted its third man-advantage of the period at 9:09 to go up by three. Applying tremendous pressure down low, Tkachuk passed out to Ekblad in the left circle and he sent the puck over to Jones, who let go of an unsuccessful wrister. The rebound came to Verhaeghe and he go it to go through Ullmark’s legs from a sharp angle.

After playing catch at the blue line with Jones, Donovan Sebrango snapped off a shot from the left point that was blocked by Dylan Cozens. Eetu Luostarinen quickly collected and went circle to circle to A.J. Greer and he ripped the puck by Ullmark with 5:58 left in the frame.

Verhaeghe would bag his second of the night 34 seconds later to complete the torrid run. Tkachuk was able to steer Ekblad’s pass past pinching Tyler Kleven to send Bennett and Verhaeghe away on a two-on-one break. Bennett got his pass over Artem Zub’s stick to Verhaeghe, who banged it home to usher former Panther James Reimer into the game.

The Senators came out with more energy to start the second and began generating chances. They got on the board at 1:40 when Drake Batherson blew an unassisted wrister by Daniil Tarasov from left circle following an offensive zone faceoff.

Los Gatos built the lead back to five when Tkachuk added to his three helpers with a goal at 12:41. After a rushing Verhaeghe was repelled by the Ottawa defense, he stole the puck right back from Tim Stützle and crossed to Bennett in the right circle. Bennett slid the puck behind the skates of Kleven to the incoming Tkachuk for an easy slam into the net.

Spence notched a goal, from Stützle and Michael Amadio, with 4:46 in the second to pull the visitors back within four and then Amadio lit the lamp early in the third, with the assists going to Ridley Grieg and Lassi Thomson to make it a three-goal game.

They would get no closer as Tarasov would finish with 23 saves to backstop the Panthers back above NHL .500, getting his tenth win, a personal high, in the process.

The suprisingly potent Cats avoided elimination on this night by jumping the Senators early and handing them a pontentially costly defeat. Florida will continue to play out the string when they host the Boston Bruins on Thursday.

The Five Hole

Matthew Tkachuk earned the nod for First Star with a season-high four points. Tkachuk has delivered three multi-point outings in his last four games. He is up to 31 points (13G/18A) in 27 games played since returning from LTIR on January 19.

Carter Verhaeghe scored twice in a game for the second time in March and joined Sams Reinhart and Bennett as the only Cats with thirty or more assists this season.

Bennett hit the 30-mark for the first time in his career with his assist on Verhaeghe’s second goal. He moved within one of Reinart’s team-lead by setting up Tkachuk in the third.

Seth Jones racked up three helpers in the opening frame, tying Radko Gudas and Bryan McCabe for the most assists in a period by a defenseman in Panthers history.

Mackie Samoskevich scored in back-to-back games for the first time in his NHL career. It was first two-goal month since October.

Stat Card