OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — With fans chanting “We don’t need you!,” the Ottawa Senators defeated Brady Tkachuk and his Florida Panthers 5-1 on Wednesday night.
Tkachuk, who spent eight seasons in Ottawa, including five as captain, was given a hostile reception in his return. He was booed regularly and the crowd aimed chants at him throughout the evening.
A number of fans even threw Tkachuk jerseys on the ice.
The Senators (7-3-0) lost goaltender Linus Ullmark
to an apparent injury early in the third period. Ullmark, who allowed one goal on 18 shots, made a pad save on Tkachuk and then needed assistance getting off the ice.
Sam Ersson faced one shot in relief.
Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Shane Pinto, Warren Foegele and Stephen Halliday scored for Ottawa.
Tkachuk scored the lone goal for the Panthers (5-3-2), who had won three straight. Akira Schmid made 25 saves.
Emotions boiled over in the third. Tkachuk, his brother Matthew and their Panthers teammate Sam Bennett got into it with Senators players in front of Ottawa’s bench. Brady Tkachuk got into a heated exchange with Senators center Dylan Cozens.
Earlier in the period, Bennett fought Ottawa forward Ridly Greig.
Foegele gave the Senators a 4-1 lead by finishing off a great feed from Cozens at the eight-minute mark of the third. Halliday made it 5-1 when he scored off Stutzle's drop pass.
The Senators scored twice in the second. Giroux scored his second goal of the season through traffic from the top of the slot midway through the period.
Pinto made it 3-1 at 17:18.
Despite the hostile environment, Tkachuk seemed unfazed and opened the scoring for the Panthers with a power-play goal midway through the first period on a feed from his brother.
Stutzle tied the game just more than four minutes later with a one-timer off a pass from Jake Sanderson.
Panthers: Play at Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Senators: Host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
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