Panthers shut out Senators, 5-0 Game turns to beer league hockey in third

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In Ottawa, the fans came for an NHL game and found a beer league contest by the time the third period rolled around on Monday night.

At 12:35 of the third period, a scrum between the Panthers and senators below the goal line turned into a melee with 10 game misconducts handed out.

“That’s mild. We only got to about 160-some minutes there. It’s got to get into the 250s before it gets too squirrelly,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Sometimes hockey can get like that. That’s part of why the game’s so darn great, because it’s graceful and beautiful and physical and angry all at the same time. Probably good for both teams. You get to make it part of the story of your year.”

Some how the glibness is offensive.

Sam Reinhart  hit for a double on the night as the Panthers handed the Sens a 5-0 loss.

“I liked our game those first two periods,” Maurice said. “We had a real tough outing against Winnipeg (a 3-0 loss on Friday) and it didn’t look anything like the kind of game that we wanted to play. You know, even in the third (on Monday) it gets a little squirrelly, but the first two periods, for sure, in terms of how we want to play the game technically, we were pretty good.”

Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves for the shutout win.

“I thought the guys did a great job to give them nothing,” Bobrovsky said. “Forwards especially. They backchecked, they filled the lanes very well, they didn’t give them much room.

The Panthers improved 13-7-1.

“They came out heavier than us,” Senators forward Claude Giroux said. “They won more battles, and in the first 10 minutes it was all them. And they came out hard and we didn’t. That’s the bottom line.

“I want to win hockey games. We need to, I don’t know. … It’s really tough to say right now because a lot of things happened tonight. And you know, it’s frustrating because we know we can be better. We definitely need to figure this out.”

Reinhart scored his first of the night at 1:28 of the first period off the power play for a 1-0 lead to the Panthers; his double came at 5:59 of the middle frame, also off the power play for a 2-0 advantage to the Panthers.

“The first few special teams put us in a good position,” Reinhart said. “We came out with a playoff mentality, trying to get our power play going a little bit.”

Sam Bennett scored at 7:09  of the second to push the lead out to 3-0.

Ottawa dropped to 8-9-0.

“We didn’t come out ready to play hard enough,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “They put it in, they went after us, they pinched the walls, they hit us. That’s as competitive a team as there is, and we talked about that, and we weren’t ready when the game started.”

Carter Verhaeghe extended the advantage to 4-0 at 11:59 of the third.

Eetu Luostarinen ballooned the lead to 5-0 at 16:32 for the final score.

Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves in the loss.

“It’s not just one person, it’s just our whole group. We just need to be better,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “There’s always lessons to be learned in each game, and I still have all the faith in what we’re doing here. I have faith in our group and our support staff, and I know we’re going to turn the ship around here.”