Hoffman extends point streak in Panthers win against Senators

OTTAWA -- Mike Hoffman extended his point streak to 16 games with a late goal, and the Florida Panthers won 7-5 against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday.

Hoffman finished a backhand deke on a breakaway with 1:40 remaining to make it 7-5. It was his first game in Ottawa since the Senators traded him June 19 to the San Jose Sharks, who sent him to the Panthers about two hours later. He has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) during the 16-game point streak, which is the longest in the NHL this season and in Florida history.
"It was an exciting day," Hoffman said. "I was looking forward to it. I had a tough time getting down for my pregame] nap because I was so excited to come back and play in this arena.
***[WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Senators highlights\]*
"We needed this win big time. The way that [the Senators] were playing, it looked like if we let them off the hook again, they were going to capitalize, and it would've been a tie game. That was a big goal."

Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck was
taken off on a stretcher
with a lower-body injury with 1:47 left in the first period. He appeared to injure his right leg crashing into the end boards in the Ottawa zone fighting for control of the puck with Senators forward Ryan Dzingel.
Florida coach Bob Boughner said he expects Trocheck will be out long term.
"[Trocheck] plays in every situation for us, so that's a big loss," Boughner said. "We're going to have to come together as a team and figure it out until he comes back."
Juho Lammikko set a Florida rookie record with four assists, Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist, and James Reimer made 33 saves for the Panthers (8-7-3), who won for the first time in three games.
"Ottawa can score goals," Boughner said. "… Reimer battled hard for us tonight and made some big stops when we needed it."
Matt Duchene had two goals and an assist for Ottawa (9-9-3), which lost for the first time in three games. Craig Anderson allowed six goals on 22 shots and was relieved with 3:31 remaining in the second period by Mike McKenna, who made nine saves.

"Allowing seven goals is not good enough," Duchene said. "Half of that is not even what we want to be giving up. We can tighten up and be better there."
Duchene scored with a forehand deke over Reimer's blocker on a breakaway to give the Senators a 1-0 lead 1:53 into the game.
Troy Brouwer tapped in a cross-crease pass from Lammikko to tie it 1-1 at 4:44.
Barkov lifted a rebound over Anderson's glove on the power play to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead at 6:35.
Jared McCann scored with a wrist shot to make it 3-1 at 11:03, and Evgenii Dadonov tapped in the puck in the crease with 0.4 seconds left in the period to make it 4-1.

Duchene one-timed a pass from Drake Batherson to get the Senators to within 4-2 at 1:32 of the second period, and Batherson scored on the power play off a pass from Duchene to cut it to 4-3 at 4:39.
Micheal Haley one-timed a pass from Lammikko to make it 5-3 at 8:49, and Vatrano scored at 16:29 to make it 6-3.
Zack Smith had a pass from Bobby Ryan go off his chest and in to make it 6-4 at 6:35 of the third period, and Brady Tkachuk scored on the rebound of a Mark Stone shot at 9:30 to cut it to 6-5.
Florida killed 21 seconds at 5-on-3 for Ottawa after defenseman Mike Matheson was called for delay of game for playing the puck over the glass with 5:05 remaining.
The game went to the first intermission with 3:37 left in the first period because of a medical event involving a fan. The remaining time was played after the intermission before the start of the second period.

They said it

"He didn't look like a rookie, did he? He was looking like Wayne [Gretzky] behind the net there. He had a great game. Those passes are right on the tape, and all we had to do is put them in after he did most of the work." -- Panthers forward Micheal Haley on Juho Lammikko's four-assist performance
"We were talking after the game [about how] that would've been an easy [game] to roll over and say, 'Hey, tough circumstances, strange night, not our night,' something like that. But I thought we showed a lot of pushback, a lot of heart there, so you've got to take away some positives from that." -- Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki

Need to know

Batherson has five points (two goals, three assists) in his first three NHL games. ... The Senators have scored 75 goals, tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for most in the NHL. … Ottawa has allowed at least four goals in five of its past six games.

What's next

Panthers: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Senators: At the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; SN360, FS-N, RDS2, NHL.TV)