SUNRISE, Fla. — With every save, FLA Live Arena got closer and closer to exploding. Alex Lyon, who was just a few weeks ago an afterthought and now the crux of the Florida Panthers’ late-season push for the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, darted from side to side and turned away every one of the Ottawa Senators’ shots on their two-minute, 5-on-3 power play until finally the Panthers poked the puck out of the defensive zone and the crowd rose to its feet to celebrate. Most probably weren’t even aware of just what was developing.
Right around center ice, Nick Cousins hopped out of the penalty box and wound up with the puck behind the defense, and he didn’t waste his chance. He tapped a shot past Mads Sogaard and leaped into Aaron Ekblad’s arms as pandemonium broke out in Sunrise for a five-goal, second-period lead. Florida took punches throughout the entire game Thursday — often quite literally — and every time answered to blow out the Senators, 7-2.
Every game is close to a must win for the Panthers (41-31-7) at this point and this one had a bit of everything. There were 144 penalty minutes, four fights and even a pair of ejections. There was an avalanche of goals in the first two periods for Florida, scoring seven times on 19 shots before ultimately finishing the game with 30. Behind it all, there was Lyon, who made his fifth straight start with star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky still battling an illness, and made 56 saves — the most in a regulation game in franchise history — despite constant bumps and barbs from Ottawa.
Superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk was in the middle of multiple fights. At one point, All-Star left wing Brady Tkachuk fought defenseman Marc Staal just seconds after his brother fought Senators right wing Drake Batherson. Most importantly, the Panthers went 3 of 4 on the power play, with two of their power-play goals coming immediately after Ottawa picked up penalties because of their conduct around Lyon’s net.
Florida’s win — a season-high fifth straight — eliminated the Senators (37-33-7) from postseason contention and kept the Panthers in full control of their wild card fate with just three games left in the regular season. If they win them all, they’ll finish as the top wild card and No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, no matter what the Islanders and Penguins do.
Florida never trailed Thursday and never led by fewer than two goals after it went up 2-0 with 5:57 left in the second period, but it was not for lack of trying from Ottawa. The Senators bombarded the 30-year-old American with 18 shots in the first period and then five more on a power play in the first 90 seconds of the second alone before Florida broke out in the other direction for a short-handed goal to go up 3-0.
It was All-Star center Aleksander Barkov’s second goal of the game and it set off Ottawa, which needed a win to keep its slim playoff hopes alive.
Not even two minutes later, Tkachuk got into a tussle with Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson after his brother slid into Lyon without any penalty called.
It was the first real sign of what was to come and mayhem began about three minutes later after Ottawa center Patrick Brown stopped short in front of Lyon to rain snow at the goalie.
The Panthers had enough. Defenseman Radko Gudas threw punches at Brown. Left wing Ryan Lomberg tackled Senators center Mark Kastelic into the goal and brought down the net. Bodies piled up in Lyon’s crease.
All the while, Lyon stood off to the side, unfazed by the fracas and ready to get back to work. This was, after all, what he waited his entire life for — after six seasons bouncing between the NHL and American Hockey League, Lyon set a new single-season career high by playing in his 12th NHL game Thursday — and he never let Ottawa rattle him.
Instead, Florida turned the Senators recklessness against them. The Panthers got a power play out of the mess and forward Sam Reinhart scored to make it 4-1. Less than two minutes later, the same sort of melee broke out and gave Florida another power play, and forward Eetu Luostarinen scored to make it 5-1.
In all, the Senators racked up 10 penalties, while the Panthers racked up six multi-point scorers and went 6 of 6 on the penalty kill with a short-handed goal.
Barkov had two goals and an assist, and star defenseman Brandon Montour had a goal and two assists. Reinhart had a goal and an assist, and Tkachuk had a pair of assists. Aaron Ekblad had two assists, and fellow defenseman Gustav Forsling had a goal and an assist.
