OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for his fifth shutout of the season, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists and the Florida Panthers routed the Ottawa Senators 6-0 on Thursday night.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice moved into sole possession of fourth place on the NHL victory list with 865.
“I (once) thought, ‘If I could coach 500 games in this league, that would be something else,’ because I think the average number is about 250 or 350,” Maurice said. “I think you hit it and you go, ‘If I could get 500 wins, that would be something,’ and then you just start getting older. I have more fun coaching the game now than I ever have in my life.”
Nick Cousins, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart also scored to help Florida improve to 48-24-5.
“It took everybody, including obviously ‘Bob,’ but all four lines and everybody was in it today,” Lundell said. “It was a great team win.”
Joonas Korpisalo allowed four goals on 17 shots for Ottawa. Anton Forsberg gave up two on 14 shots in relief.
“Not much needs to be said,” Ottawa star Brady Tkachuk said. “That was embarrassing.”
With Florida up 5-0 to start the third, Tkachuk scored a power-play goal by tipping in Aleksander Barkov shot in front.
Florida padded its 2-0 lead by scoring three times in the second period.
Lundell, who was below the goal line, banked a shot off Korpisalo’s shoulder to make it 3-0 at 2:35. Less than two minutes later Tkachuk dropped a pass to a trailing Bennett, who beat Korpisalo to end the goalie's night.
Forsberg came on in relief but, with just over two minutes remaining in the period, Reinhart scored his 53rd of the season.
The Panthers opened the scoring 1:02 into the game, with Cousins taking a pass in the slot and beating Korpisalo Kulikov made it 2-0 35 seconds later with a shot from just inside the blue line.
UP NEXT
Panthers: At Boston on Saturday.
Senators: Host New Jersey on Saturday night.
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