Linus Ullmark made 30 saves in his Ottawa debut, Tim Stützle scored twice and the Senators defeated the visiting Florida Panthers 3-1 in their season and home opener on Thursday night.
Shane Pinto also scored for the Senators. Ullmark, obtained in a June trade with the Boston Bruins and freshly re-signed, made 16 saves in the third period.
Travis Green was a winner in his first game as Senators head coach.
Gustav Forsling scored for the Panthers, who opened a four-game road trip. Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Florida had Ottawa on its heels throughout the second half of the third period with Ullmark making a series of saves around the 13-minute mark.
Minutes later, Florida’s Aaron Ekblad was called for a holding penalty, breaking the momentum.
The Panthers killed off the penalty and Bobrovsky was lifted for the extra skater with about 1:30 left. Stützle, however, beat Aleksander Barkov to a puck near the Panthers’ net and tipped it into the empty net at 18:50 for the 3-1 final.
Both players went down and slid into the boards, with Barkov needing help to leave the ice.
Stützle gave the Senators a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 5:52 of the first period. He took a pass at the point from Josh Norris, drifted toward the slot and fired a wrist shot through traffic and past Bobrovsky.
Pinto made it 2-0 at 10:42 when he picked up a loose puck in the defensive zone, entered the Panthers’ end 2-on-1 with David Perron, kept the puck and scored far side from the right circle.
Ottawa outshot Florida 17-8 over the first 20 minutes.
Ullmark made a strong pad save on Nate Schmidt’s wrist shot near the end of a Panthers power play at 6:35 of the second period.
Forsling pulled the Panthers within 2-1 at 15:48 of the period. The Panthers worked the puck behind the Senators’ net and Sam Bennett passed to Forsling, who scored on a slap shot from the point that beat Ullmark glove side.
Ottawa’s next game is Saturday night in Montreal.