A pair of Atlantic Division teams looking to the future as the regular season winds down take the ice in search of a win in Western New York. The Ottawa Senators are on the road as they make the trip to face the Florida Panthers Thursday night. Ottawa downed Carolina 3-2 at home in their previous contest Monday night. Buffalo comes in off a 6-2 pasting on the road by New Jersey in the second game of a back-to-back situation in their previous game Tuesday night. In the last 10 meetings between the teams, the Senators own a 7-3 advantage and have taken two straight. That includes a 3-1 home win in the most recent matchup on January 1.
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Ottawa won their second straight game as they took care of Carolina on home ice Monday night, though it was too little, too late for their playoff hopes. The Senators entered Wednesday night 39-35-7 on the season and were sixth in the Atlantic Division standings, 48 points behind the Bruins for the division lead. They have been eliminated from playoff contention. Ottawa is tied for 17th in offense as they average 3.16 goals per game to this point of the season. The Senators are tied for 20th in goals against as they allow an average of 3.28 goals per contest this year. Ottawa is 9th with the man advantage as they have cashed in 23.4% of their chances with the man advantage this season. The Senators are 14th in penalty killing as they successfully navigate 80.1% of their shorthanded situations this season.
Against Carolina, Ottawa started strong, let Caroli na back into the game, and then earned the win late to make it two straight wins. The Senators held a 10-9 edge in shots on goal in the opening period of play and took a 2-0 lead to the dressing room after 20 minutes of play. Claude Giroux opened the scoring with his 33rd goal of the season at 5:51 off assists from Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle. Later in the period, Stutzle made it a 2-0 game with his 38th goal of the year at 17:26 with Giroux and Tkachuk drawing the assists on the marker. Ottawa was outshot 12-8 in the second period of play and they were outscored 1-0 to narrow their margin to 2-1 after 40 minutes. In the third period, the Senators were outshot 12-10 with both teams scoring once, leaving the hosts with the lead as time expired. After Carolina tied the game, Giroux scored his second of the game and 34th of the season at 9:37 to give the Senators a lead. That goal held up as the game-winner and Giroux finished the night with 1,001 car eer points. Mads Sogaard made 27 saves for the Senators, who were outshot 32-29, in the win. He is expected to get the start in goal again here.