Senators Push Back Panthers

     The Ottawa Senators came back from an early two-goal deficit with four unanswered goals as they defeated the Florida Panthers 4-2 at BB&T Center on Tuesday night. The Panthers have dropped five of their last six games and are now 0-6-1 against Atlantic Division opponents this season. The announced attendance of 10,074 was the lowest at a Panthers home game in Sunrise since they had 10,063 on October 31, 2007 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
     Florida(7-16-5) took advantage of several power play opportunities in the first nine minutes of the first period to go ahead 2-0. The Cats had a 5-on-3 man advantage for 1:13 as Jonathan Huberdeau put in a rebound shot from the edge of the crease following a Tomas Fleischmann slapshot from the high slot area at 6:44.
     The Panthers extended their lead at 8:22 on another power play. Brian Campbell received a pass from the right corner by Scottie Upshall, he skated alone through the left circle and snapped a shot over the left shoulder of Craig Anderson into the top shelf of the cage.
     Ottawa(11-13-4) started to climb out of the hole at 10:58 when Joe Corvo floated a wrist shot from the right point by the right shoulder of Tim Thomas to make it 2-1.
     Erik Condra would tie the game with 1:15 left in the first as he finished the play with a snapshot from the crease area off a feed by Jason Spezza from behind the Panthers net. The Panthers were outshot 21-10 in the first period which included giving up the final 12 shots in the last eight minutes.
     The Sens took the lead on a strange play with 42.3 seconds remaining in the second period. Corvo fired a shot from the right point that bounced off the thigh of Colin Greening, over the head of Thomas and into the net.
     Midway through the third period, the Senators capitalized on a clearing pass by the Panthers in their own zone. Jared Cowen carried the puck down the left-wing wall and sent a cross-ice pass to Bobby Ryan by himself in the low slot and he scored with 8:08 to go for an Ottawa 4-2 lead.
     The Cats were very good on the power play as they went 2-for-3 while the Sens were 1-for-7. Anderson improved to 10-1-1 in his career against his former team. His record is now 7-8-2 this season as he made 30 saves. Thomas fell to 6-10-1 as he stopped 41 of 45 shots.