{"id":575186,"date":"2026-04-01T13:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575186\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:16:15","slug":"ottawa-senators-dealt-big-blow-to-playoff-hopes-by-florida-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575186\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators dealt big blow to playoff hopes by Florida Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Noah Gregor scored eight seconds into the game to open an early five-goal barrage by Florida, Matthew Tkachuk had his first four-point game since December 2024, and the Panthers defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals and added an assist for Florida, while Seth Jones had three assists \u2014 including one on Gregor’s history-making goal.<\/p>\n

Gregor’s goal was the fastest to open a game in Panthers history \u2014 two seconds ahead of Johan Garpenlov’s goal at the 10-second mark of a game against Colorado in October 1996 \u2014 and the fastest to start a game in the NHL this season.<\/p>\n

Linus Ullmark started and stopped 11 of 16 shots before getting chased after Florida took a 5-0 lead with 5:24 left in the first period.<\/p>\n

James Reimer replaced Ullmark and stopped 12 of 13 shots.<\/p>\n

Drake Batherson, Jordan Spence and Michael Amadio scored for Ottawa, which has gone 0-2-1 in its last three games as it chases a wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. <\/p>\n

The Senators are tied with Detroit and Philadelphia at two points back of the final Eastern playoff spot with eight games to play.<\/p>\n

A.J. Greer and Mackie Samoskevich also scored for Florida, while Sam Bennett added two assists and Daniil Tarasov stopped 22 shots for the Panthers.<\/p>\n

\"TwoFlorida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk, right, celebrates his goal with centre Sam Bennett during the second period against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. (Jim Rassol\/Imagn Images\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and three assists in the game. It was the 25th time he’s gone head-to-head in the NHL with his brother Brady, the Senators’ captain; Matthew Tkachuk’s teams have now won 15 of those meetings.<\/p>\n

Linesman Brad Kovachik worked regular-season game No. 1,972 of his career \u2014 and it’ll be the last. The veteran of three decades is retiring, ending a career that saw him work the Stanley Cup final in five different years, as well as the 2014 Sochi Olympics.<\/p>\n

Players from both teams lined up to shake Kovachik’s hand during a first-period stoppage in play. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-575186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}