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Senators hope to stay hot versus Panthers

Oct 27, 2011 - 2:55 PM (Sports Network) - The suddenly-hot Ottawa Senators will shoot for a fourth straight victory when they host the Florida Panthers in tonight's clash at Scotiabank Place.

The Senators began the year with a 1-5-0 record, but have since notched consecutive wins over Winnipeg, Columbus and Carolina. Ottawa's last four-game winning streak was from Nov. 2-9 of last season.

Florida, meanwhile, enters tonight on the strength of back-to-back victories. The Panthers beat the visiting New York Islanders on Saturday and began a three-game road trip with Monday's close win in Montreal.

Ottawa's most recent win came via the shootout, as Jason Spezza scored in the second round of the deciding phase to lift the Senators to a 3-2 win over the Hurricanes in Tuesday's game in Raleigh.

Spezza and Zenon Konopka scored in regulation for the Senators, who had lost three straight before the current winning streak. Craig Anderson stopped 32- of-34 shots for Ottawa.

"I thought we had a solid team effort," Ottawa head coach Paul MacLean said. "I thought (Anderson) gave us confidence, but we played well in our own end."

The Senators, who played without captain Daniel Alfredsson on Tuesday, picked up their first victory of the season (1-3-0) on the road. Ottawa is 3-2-0 as the host.

Alfredsson is battling a hip flexor and is questionable for tonight's tilt.

In other news, Senators general manager Bryan Murray announced Wednesday that Mika Zibanejad is being returned to Djurgarden, his team in the Swedish Elite League. Zibanejad, who was the sixth overall pick in the 2011 draft, had just one assist and a minus-3 rating in nine games. By making the move before the 18-year-old center played in his 10th game, the Senators delayed the start of his three-year, entry-level contract.

The Panthers improved to 3-2-0 on the road this year with their recent win over the struggling Canadiens. Scottie Upshall tallied the deciding goal in the third period to give Florida a 2-1 victory at Montreal's Bell Centre.

Tomas Fleischmann scored the other goal for Florida and Jacob Markstrom made 40 saves as the Panthers took their second straight win.

Markstrom, who made his second career NHL start on Monday, could get the call again tonight if Jose Theodore isn't ready to return from a lower-body injury. Theodore, who suffered an injury in Saturday's win over the Islanders, was able to serve as the backup on Monday.

Florida is already without veteran netminder Scott Clemmensen (knee) for the first month of the season.

Mikael Samuelsson could make his Panthers debut tonight after sitting out Monday with a groin injury. Samuelsson and fellow forward Marco Sturm were acquired by Florida on Saturday in the deal that sent forwards David Booth and Steve Reinprecht to Vancouver.

Sturm played on Monday and had two shots on net in 10 minutes, 36 seconds of ice time.

Ottawa won all four meetings with the Panthers last season and has taken six straight and seven of the last eight matchups in this series. Florida has also dropped three in a row and seven out of 10 in Canada's capital city.