Senators 2 | Panthers 1

The Cats squandered a 1-0 lead tonight by giving up a pair of goals five minutes apart in the third to Dany Heatley and Chris Kelly.

Florida's power play, which has struggled this season, produced the Cats' lone goal early in the first period when Keith Ballard, with Olesz setting up a perfect screen, fired a shot stick side by Alex Auld. At the time, Ottawa was on the losing end of a 5-on-3 penalty kill.

Shots were tight through the first two periods, but the Panthers started to sit back and focus more on defense in the third. Penalties and turnovers followed and Ottawa took advantage, scoring first on the power play and again just a few minutes later.

Tonight's lines looked like this:

Vokoun

Bouwmeester - Skrastins
Ballard - Boynton
Welch - Belak

Stillman - Horton - Olesz
Booth - McLean - Zednik
Peltonen - Kreps - Dvorak
Frolik - Matthias - Stewart

Olesz was reunited with Cory Stillman and Nathan Horton on the top line and they had a great game. This line needs to stay together for a while.

I really liked the line of Frolik, Matthias and Stewart. Whether I think that Matthias or Frolik should be here just yet doesn't change the fact that the three of them played a very energetic game - despite limited time. Matthias had a nice steal, Stewart had a big hit on Volchenkov and Frolik was making some nifty passes.

Between the first and second period, Jacques Martin was interviewed and asked about a few things, largely Jassen Cullimore, injuries and his expectations with Matthias:

We'll get production. I like kid. I think this kid is going to be a real good player for our organization for many years. It's a matter of playing in Rochester. He's getting an opportunity to play the power play, penalty killing, even strength.. He's playing a major role, so I think he's getting a lot more development than maybe getting 6, 8 minutes here. So for the benefit of his career, I think the right move is to have Shawn Matthias in Rochester for now.

Matthias, disappointed in not making the Panthers, by his own admission said he hadn't been trying his hardest in Rochester. Obviously that's not a good thing. Hopefully his willingness to acknowledge that is a sign that he'll get over it and take advantage of the next level in his development.

If you're a fan of the Amerks, Martin didn't make any mention of a timeframe for Matthias' stint with the Panthers. Weiss and Campbell's injuries brought him up, and by what was said, when they're back, Matthias will be headed north. Of course, that could be a day, that could be a week. There were no hints of addressing anything in Rochester, although the question didn't really seek that sort of response.

JM also touched on the way things have been going for Anthony Stewart. Wasn't really any major revelation, but if you wondered, it's simply that there is still the belief that Stewart is going to be an impact player somewhere down the road for the Panthers, and that's a good thing. He is trying his hardest to make the most out of his shifts, limited though they've been.

Aside from the youth on the team, Martin alluded to wanting Jassen Cullimore here from the start of the season, but because of the number of defensemen on the roster, the only way was to move someone (Murphy on waivers). Unable to make anything happen, injuries opened up the door for Cullimore to come back, anyway. Immigration is slowing him down, though.

As for timeframes that were put out on those injures, Bryan McCabe is trying to get back and said he's hoping a week, but seemed pretty confident that at the latest, he'll be back sometime between one and two weeks. Cory Murphy's shoulder is strained. He's going to be out "at least" six weeks.

Matthias picked up 7:21 on nine shifts (one in the third), Frolik had 8:26 on eleven shifts (two in the third) and on the flipside, Jay Bouwmeester had another huge game - 31:35 in time on ice, with Keith Ballard getting 30:04.