By Canadian Press

Roberto Luongo makes 39 saves as Panthers beat Senators 4-1

Nov 19, 2016 | 6:00 PM

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators’ inability to score goals had more to do with goaltending than anything else Saturday night

Roberto Luongo made 39 saves as the Florida Panthers defeated Ottawa 4-1 — leaving the Senators with just 13 goals in their past nine games.

“He had a great game tonight. We had a lot of good chances and it was just one of those games,” Senators winger Chris Neil said.

“We did a lot of good things and we have to build off it. Obviously the score doesn’t dictate how the game went, but we have to take the positives, take a day of rest tomorrow and come back Monday and build off it. If you play like that you’re going to win more games than you’re going to lose.”

Jaromir Jagr had a goal and two assists while Jussi Jokinen, Jonathan Marchessault and Derek MacKenzie also scored for the Panthers (9-8-1).

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Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored and Craig Anderson made 19 saves for the Senators (10-7-1), who have lost back-to-back games for just the second time this season.

Pageau broke Luongo’s shutout bid when his shot from below the goal line found its way in between the netminder and the crossbar at 4:45 of the third period.

MacKenzie got that goal back for the Panthers at 9:16 when his shot barely got through Anderson and across the goal line.

“We took advantage of our opportunities tonight and that’s the moral of the story I think,” Luongo said.

“When we got our chances we buried them and sometimes that’s all it takes. All in all I made a couple of big saves but the boys were able to take advantage of the opportunities and give me a little bit of breathing room.”

Through 40 minutes the Senators had nothing to show for what were two very solid periods of hockey, other than 27 shots on goal.

At one point in the first period they held a 12-3 advantage in shots but trailed 2-0 as Jagr had a hand in on both goals.

He opened the scoring just 25 seconds into the contest when his backhand was redirected by the stick of Senators forward Derick Brassard past Anderson.

“We don’t want to be in that position but that’s the game of hockey and sometimes they’ll score before we do,” Senators defenceman Marc Methot explained.

“You want to score goals, but I’m not in a position to talk about where we should be going on the ice and power play and stuff and I don’t necessarily contribute a ton of points as it is, so from my perspective I’m just going to keep doing my job playing defence and hopefully we’ll start getting some breaks.”

Jagr then left the puck at the Ottawa blue line for Aleksander Barkov, who then found Jokinen in the slot, and he beat Anderson high glove side with a wrist shot.

“We were pretty lucky. It’s nice to get a win but we were lucky and Lou played excellent and was unbelievable in the net,” Jagr said.

“The score says we won 4-1 but Lou saved three or four goals at least, so we have to thank him for this one.”

In between those two goals Ryan Dzingel got past Panthers defenceman Jakub Kindl, but fired a shot off the crossbar. Kindl received a hooking penalty on the play but the Senators managed just one shot during the man advantage.

Luongo got some help in the second period when Aaron Ekblad slid to block a Mark Stone shot after the original shot by Brassard went off the end boards right to Stone at the side of the net.

Luongo later stopped Pageau point blank with a sprawling save then foiled Dzingel on a breakaway.

Marchessault gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead at 14:55 of the second when a blocked shot went right to his stick at the side of the goal. He quickly swatted the puck past Anderson.

Notes: Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman and Andrew Hammond were scratches for the Senators while Dylan McIlrath, Greg McKegg and Kyle Rau were scratches for the Panthers…Curtis Lazar was recalled by the Senators Saturday and made his season debut…The Senators placed goaltender Andrew Hammond on waivers Saturday…Panthers defenceman Keith Yandle played in his 569th consecutive game. He currently ranks second in consecutive game played behind the 722 of Anaheim Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano…The Senators next play Tuesday in Montreal against the Canadiens. The Panthers are at Madison Square Garden to face the New York Rangers Sunday.

Darren Desaulniers, The Canadian Press