Rostislav Olesz scores twice, Panthers beat slumping Senators 3-0

Olesz leads Panthers past Senators

OTTAWA — Rostislav Olesz scored twice, and Tomas Vokoun made 24 saves for his fourth shutout of the season in the Florida Panthers’ 3-0 victory over the slumping Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

Nathan Horton also scored for Florida.

The Senators dropped their third straight game.

Despite two early power-play opportunities, the Panthers managed just two shots on goal in the first period. The Senators had one shot on goal on their first power play and failed to get a shot on Tomas Vokoun in the second.

The Panthers managed to end the period with a 1-0 lead after Horton picked up a big rebound and beat Brian Elliott high to the glove side.

Things didn’t get much better in the second as Elliott allowed two bad goals, reinforcing Ottawa’s goaltending woes.

On the first, Elliott made a bad pass behind the net and never managed to get back in position — giving Olesz the whole left side of the net. On the second, Elliott mishandled Olesz’s wrist shot that then slipped into the net.

The Senators lost Jesse Winchester with what appears to be an injury to his right knee after a collision with Keith Ballard. Filip Kuba left early in the third period with an upper-body injury and didn’t return.

NOTES: The Senators were without RW Daniel Alfredsson (shoulder), C Jason Spezza (knee) and LW Milan Michalek (upper body). The Panthers were without LW Kenndal McArdle (arm), D Dmitry Kulikov (knee) and LW David Booth (concussion).