The Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Wednesday in Brady Tkachuk’s first game in Ottawa since his offseason trade, with Tim Stutzle and Stephen Halliday each posting a goal and an assist. Tkachuk scored on Florida’s first shot of the night, but the Senators answered with five unanswered goals to improve to 7-3-0.
Ottawa broke the game open in the second period when Claude Giroux and Shane Pinto scored 7:44 apart to turn a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 lead. Panthers goaltender Akira Schmid finished with 25 saves on 30 shots, while Florida saw its three-game winning streak end and dropped to 5-3-2.
Key Moments: How Ottawa Pulled Away
Tkachuk opened the scoring just 10 minutes into the first period on a power play, taking a pass from his brother Matthew Tkachuk down low on the right side and lifting a wrist shot under Linus Ullmark’s right arm. Stutzle tied it 1-1 at 14:13 of the first, one-timing a feed from Jake Sanderson in the right face-off circle into an open net on another Ottawa power play.
Giroux put the Senators ahead for good at 9:34 of the second period, and Pinto extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:18. Warren Foegele added a short-handed goal at 7:58 of the third to make it 4-1, and Halliday capped the scoring at 14:57 with a snap shot off a Stutzle assist for the 5-1 final.
Ullmark allowed the one goal on 17 shots before leaving at 3:25 of the third period with a lower-body injury. Samuel Ersson relieved him and stopped the only shot he faced.
Top Performers
Sanderson recorded two assists in his first game back after missing eight contests with a lower-body injury suffered Oct. 3. Stutzle finished with a goal and an assist for a team-high two points, and Halliday matched him with a goal and an assist of his own. Ottawa out-shot Florida 30-19 and won 62.3% of its faceoffs. On the other side, Tkachuk led the Panthers with a goal, and Seth Jones had an assist.
What They Said
Tkachuk, who spent eight seasons in Ottawa, including five as captain, requested a trade with two years left on his seven-year, $57.5 million contract. The crowd booed him throughout the night, but he acknowledged them with his stick raised, embracing his role as a villain, according to ESPN.
“There’s professional reasons, personal reasons, why I wasn’t going to re-sign here,” Tkachuk said. “And a lot of those things are going to remain private between [Senators’ GM Steve Staios] and I. I know how I feel about this city, about this fanbase, and how thankful and appreciative that I am.”
He had pledged to donate any Senators jerseys thrown on the ice to a local Boys and Girls club chapter, but few jerseys landed on the ice.
meta_description”:”The Senators beat the Panthers 5-1 Wednesday in Brady Tkachuk’s first game back in Ottawa since his June trade to Florida.”seo_title”:”Senators Beat Panthers 5-1 in Tkachuk’s Return”https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/50243435/brady-tkachuk-embraces-boos-scores-acrimonious-return-ottawa” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>ESPN
.And that no matter what the reaction is, it’s not going to change how I feel about this city and the fanbase.”
Tkachuk requested the trade days after Ottawa was swept in a first-round playoff series by Carolina. He had pledged before the game to donate any Senators jerseys thrown on the ice to a local Boys and Girls club chapter, though few jerseys landed on the ice, per ESPN.
What It Means
Ottawa tied Tampa Bay for second in the Atlantic Division at 14 points, one behind Boston. Florida dropped to 12 points, tied with Toronto, and the Senators lead the season series 1-0.
What’s Next
The Panthers face Pittsburgh on Thursday in the second game of a back-to-back.
Don't stop here
Every Score. Every Story. One Home.
Breaking sports, entertainment and news from across the Total Apex network, updated all day.
Get the Full Story →
