Panthers Bury Senators

     The Florida Panthers ended a three-game winless streak as they defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-2 at BB&T Center on Thursday night. The Panthers hosted the Sens for the third time this season which is the most against any opponent.
     Florida(37-21-9) moved out to a 1-0 lead at 13:07 of the first period. Jonathan Huberdeau had the puck on the left wing and passed across to Jaromir Jagr in the slot area. He snapped a shot over the left glove of Craig Anderson for his 22nd goal of the season.
     Ottawa(31-30-8) waited until the final minute as they scored with 22.6 seconds left in the period. Erik Karlsson took a shot from the top right circle which was blocked by traffic. Zack Smith emerged out with the puck and put in a wrist shot by Roberto Luongo from close range.
     In the second period, the Panthers regained the lead at 5:52. Vincent Trocheck dropped the puck in the right circle to Erik Gudbranson. He followed with a diagonal pass to Jussi Jokinen in the low slot and he scored to extend his point streak to nine games.
     The Senators tied it at 2-2 just 27 seconds later. Smith cycled it from the right corner to the right point where Karlsson rocketed a slapshot into the Panthers cage.
     The Panthers roared with two goals in a 16-second span to move ahead 4-2. Aaron Ekblad helped the Cats get their third lead of the game at 9:32 when he scored on a wrist shot from the high slot after a feed by Trocheck. They added another tally at 9:46 as Huberdeau crashed the blue paint area and scored an unassisted goal.
     Jagr increased their margin to 5-2 with his second goal of the contest at 4:26 of the third period. Trocheck was on the right wing and threaded a pass to Jagr in the middle and put in a high wrist shot for his 745th career goal.
     Trocheck extended the gap to four goals as he scored from the slot area on a snap shot at 10:59. Reilly Smith stole the puck from Karlsson in the neutral zone to set the play up.