Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad and Anton Lundell all finished with a goal and an assist, and the Florida Panthers stayed unbeaten by topping the Ottawa Senators 6-2 on Saturday night.
Mackie Samoskevich, Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues also scored for the Panthers, who got two assists from Seth Jones. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots for Florida, which has trailed for a total of 63 seconds in its first three games.
Florida — which scored three power-play goals and has five with the man advantage already this season — is 3-0-0 for the third time in its 32-season history, joining 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Shane Pinto scored both goals for Ottawa, which is now 0-6-1 in its last seven games at Florida. Linus Ullmark stopped 21 shots for the Senators.
It was Ottawa forward Nick Cousins’ first game back in Sunrise since the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, when the Panthers won their first championship. Cousins — who didn’t play at Florida when Ottawa visited last season — was with the Panthers for two seasons.
He was welcomed back with a tribute video.
“Any guy that has 16 nicknames is well liked. He hears it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He was part of that ‘have fun, play hard’ thing we were trying to build.”
Bobrovsky was the starter for the 26th consecutive Florida game going back to last season’s playoff, tying his longest run with the Panthers. If he starts Monday, he would tie the Panthers’ record for consecutive goalie starts; Ed Belfour made 27 straight in 2007.
The Panthers played without defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who was hurt Thursday and has gone on injured reserve. It’s not clear how long he’ll be sidelined.
Up next
- Senators: Host Nashville on Monday in their home opener.
- Panthers: Visit Philadelphia on Monday to start a five-game road trip.
