In a bizarre scene on Monday in Ottawa, Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice was forced to do a head count on his bench after losing much of his active roster to game misconducts in a gruesome 5-0 win over the Senators.
In total, 13 players were ejected on the night, including 10 following a third-period melee.
Things got heated when Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk had a near breakaway with just under eight minutes remaining and Ottawa trailing 4-0. But when he made contact with Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, everyone on the ice seemed to jump into the fray.
Tkachuk’s brother, Matthew, actually plays for the Panthers and was assessed an unsportsmanlike penalty earlier in the game for fighting Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson and Zack MacEwan, the latter of whom was also ejected. Later, Florida’s Sam Bennett and and Ottawa’s Mathieu Joseph were tossed, bringing the total to 13 ejections while the two teams combined for 167 penalty minutes.
An exasperated Maurice was seen on the bench frantically doing a head count as he attempted to regroup for the final seven minutes of action. Later, the decorated 56-year-old coach that he thought his team’s 83 penalty minutes were ‘mild.’
Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice does a quick head count after a wave of ejections
Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk (in white) and Ottawa’s Zack MacEwen are pulled apart
Players from the Ottawa Senators and the Florida Panthers fight during the third period
As for the game, Sam Reinhart scored two goals and Bobrovsky made 20 saves to help the reigning Eastern Conference-champion Panthers snap their two-game losing stream.
Bobrovsky’s second shutout of the season and No. 40 for his career helped Matthew Tkachuk get the better of his brother, Brady.
Ottawa struggled early and never managed to get on equal footing with the Panthers. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 33 shots after missing the last two games with a minor injury.
Trailing 3-0 in the third period, the Senators started to pick up their play, but also let their emotions get the best of them.
‘You know, I just thought at 3-0 we came up with some really good shifts. We were aggressive. We were, you know, in the game, lots of game left and then we take a five-minute major and that takes you right out of the game,’ Senators coach D.J. Smith said.
Dmitry Kulikov of the Florida Panthers body-checks Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk in the third
Matthew Tkachuk clearly got under the skin of his younger brother Brady’s teammates. MacEwen jumped Matthew and took a five-minute match penalty. Sanderson later dropped the gloves against Matthew Tkachuk as well.
‘I mean, I don’t think it’s bad to play with emotion,’ said Brady Tkachuk. ‘I think, when this group plays with emotion we’re a tough team to beat and I think we rely on our emotion and it shows that we care, shows that we care about what we’re doing here and about the guy next to us.’
Brady Tkachuk also got in the middle of things and was in the penalty box for cross-checking when Verhaeghe made it 4-0 at 11:59.
Luostarinen rounded out the scoring with 3:28 remaining.
Reinhart helped Florida get off to a fast start with two power-play goals. He got his first one just 1:28 into the game, and then made it 2-0 with his 15th of the season 5:59 into the second.
Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson (85) collides with Panthers center Aleksander Barkov
The Senators challenged Reinhart’s second goal for being offside, but it remained in place after a lengthy review and Bennett made it 3-0 on the ensuing power play.
‘The first few special teams put us in a good position,’ said Reinhart. ‘We came out with a playoff mentality, trying to get our power play going a little bit.’
The win allowed the Panthers to snap a two-game losing skid as they kicked off three straight road games within the division.
‘It’s good that our power play, our special teams, in the end, won us the game,’ Maurice said. ‘Our goaltender made a couple of saves that he had to make to keep it right. But our penalty kill was as good as our power play tonight and that won us the game.’
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