Senators roll to big win as booed Tkachuk scores, Ullmark leaves with injury

The boos rained down, and Brady Tkachuk still found the back of the net in his return to the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday night.

While the Senators settled the score with a 5-1 victory over Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers in front of a sellout crowd of 17,010, the mood was dampened by the sight of top goalie Linus Ullmark being helped to the dressing room in the third period.

Stephen Halliday, Warren Foegele, Shane Pinto, Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle did the scoring as the Senators sent a notice to their former captain, who demanded a trade last summer, that they’re doing just fine without Tkachuk.

The fans let Tkachuk know every chance they didn’t appreciate the way he left the city. He was booed every time he touched the puck and though he scored his seventh of the season it didn’t mean much in the end.

Ulllmark left four minutes into the third after kicking out his leg to stop a shot by Tkachuk. He went down in the crease and while getting help from the trainers, Tkachuk was battling near the Ottawa bench.

That’s when jerseys rained down on the ice.

It’s not often these games live up to the hype, but this one had it in every category. It was a physical, there were battles for space, hard hits, along with feisty winger Ridly Greig dropping the gloves with Sam Bennett in the third.

The chants ranged from: “Traitor, Brady Sucks, F— you Brady, and We don’t need you.” There were others about playing in Matthew’s shadow and Tkachuk took it all well.

The fans didn’t miss a beat. They booed Tkachuk when the Panthers came out of their dressing room for warmup, and were on top of it when he touched the puck. He did throw a puck to a young fan.

Everybody thought this return would be emotional, but nobody expected the group hugs that took place for Daniel Alfredsson and Erik Karlsson when they came back the first time.

The tribute video, which highlighted Tkachuk’s work in the community during his eight years with the Senators, was about as awkward as everybody predicted.

It was booed for 90 straight seconds without people taking a breath. A smiling Tkachuk, who has a good sense of humour, stood near centre ice and raised his stick to the crowd with a wide smile.

When the club welcomed Lars Eller back early in the second, the fans were quick to give him a standing ovation.

It was a battle between two teams trying to make the playoffs in the difficult Atlantic Division. There was a lot on the line with the Senators coming off a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

The fans were on their feet with the Senators leading 3-1 after 40 minutes. Ullmark stopped 14 of 15 shots, while the Senators had some timely scoring.

The Senators played with good structure and won battles.

At one point, Tkachuk had words with rugged winger Ridly Greig, but the Senators did a good job of frustrating the Panthers.

The Senators have been looking for secondary scoring in the early part of the year, and they got it in the second. Pinto, on a partial breakaway, slid the puck under a sprawling Schmid with 2:42 left in the second.

Giroux brought the crowd to its feet with his second of the season to give the club a 2-1 lead at 9:34 of the second. He fired a blast that beat Schmid on the glove side.

The first period was the best we’ve seen in five home games this season. It had everything, with the crowd engaged and bringing the energy while both teams played physically.

Hayden Hodgson and Boko Imama of the Panthers dropped the gloves in an entertaining bout. The shots were 11-6 for Ottawa, and it finished in a 1-1 tie.

The Tkachuks did a good job getting under the skin of the Senators. It was easy to predict they’d try to throw Ullmark off his game, and Matthew did just that with four minutes left in the first by going to the net.

He took a poke at Ullmark, which set off a scrum behind the net. Tkachuk jumped into the fray and got into a shoving match with Nick Cousins. That resulted in both players ending up in the box.

Trailing 1-0, Stutzle had the crowd chanting “Tim is better” not long after his sixth of the year. He one-timed a pass from Jake Sanderson into an open cage on the power play at 14:13 to tie it up.

Tkachuk did a good job inflicting his own form of revenge on the Ottawa faithful by opening the scoring. Down low on the power play, he beat Ullmark on the first shot he faced at the 10-minute mark of the first.

Lost in the hoopla of Tkachuk’s return was Sanderson’s arrival back after missing eight games with an undisclosed lower-body ailment. He left the club’s season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 3 after aggravating the injury.

It’s the first time this season the Senators have had their top pairing of Artem Zub and Sanderson. The club has used 10 defencemen, but it is without captain Thomas Chabot, who is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury that forced him to leave Saturday’s loss to Philly.

“Anytime you see No. 85 out there,” GM Steve Staios told Amazon after the first period, “he’s so impressive. He’s so diligent defensively. Great teammate, great person, and you love seeing him back.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com