twice to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 5-2 Tuesday
night for their seventh win in eight games.
Jarkko Ruutu, Erik Karlsson and Chris
Neil also got goals for Ottawa, and captain Daniel Alfredsson had an
assist in the 1,000th game of his NHL career.
Shawn Matthias and Kamil Kreps each
scored for the Panthers.
Ottawa's Pascal Leclaire made 32
saves, while Tomas Vokoun stopped 23 shots for Florida.
The Senators have already clinched a
postseason spot, but Buffalo clinched the Northeast Division title by
beating the New York Rangers earlier Tuesday night.
The Panthers were already eliminated
from playoff contention.
Fisher got his second goal of the
night at 4:45 in the third period to push Ottawa's lead to 4-1. Ruutu
then scored at 6:30 of the third, tipping in the puck to make it 5-1.
Neil had his second assist of the game on that goal.
Kreps put in a rebound for Florida to
make it 5-2 at 7:56 of the third.
The Senators went up 1-0 on Fisher's
power-play goal with 2:16 left in the first period. Fisher scored on a
shot from in front, with Jason Spezza and Alfredsson earning assists.
Karlsson scored at 3:58 of the second
to extend Ottawa's lead to 2-0. He put in a rebounding puck with a
wrist shot from just above the left side of the crease.
Matthias made it 2-1 with his seventh
goal of the season at 8:41 of the second period, but Ottawa went ahead
3-1 with a fluke goal 21 seconds later. Florida defenseman Keith Ballard
tried to swipe the puck away from in front of the Panthers goal with
his glove. Instead, he batted it back into his own net. Ottawa's Neil
was credited with the goal.
Notes
Alfredsson scored the first
goal of his NHL career on Oct. 13, 1995, also against the Panthers. The
Senators lost that game 6-2. … Alfredsson is the fourth player to
reach the 1,000-game milestone during a matchup in Sunrise this season.
Calgary RW Jarome Iginla, and Panthers D Bryan McCabe and RW Radek
Dvorak also played their 1,000th games at the BankAtlantic Center. …
Panthers coach Pete DeBoer has been chosen as an assistant coach for the
Canadian IIHF World Championship team.