Senators 6, Panthers 0

OTTAWA (AP) -The Ottawa Senators are beginning to look more like the team that led the NHL in goals last season.

Dany Heatley had two goals and an assist and Ray Emery made 31 saves for Ottawa's first shutout of the season in the Senators' 6-0 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly, Andrej Meszaros and Antoine Vermette also scored for Ottawa, which won its second straight. The Senators, who moved one game over .500, have won six of seven since getting off to a 7-11-1 start.

"This is what we knew we were capable of," Heatley said. "We're a good team and we skate well. All we're doing is playing well as a team, which we weren't doing early on."

Two children attending the game were sent to a hospital - as a precaution - after plexiglass shattered in front of them when Senators defenseman Chris Phillips checked Florida's Stephen Weiss into the boards early in the first.

"You never like to see that," Phillips said. "They had great seats and I'm sure they were excited about being on top of the action, but unfortunately they got a little more than they bargained for."

Phillips, who sustained minor cuts and described the aftermath as an itchy feeling, spoke to the team's medical staff about the young siblings and was reassured to hear that though they had been cut, they had not suffered more serious injuries.

"Both of them just got stitches. I think the boy got some on top of his head, but as far as they told me they were fine other than the stitches," Phillips said.

Heatley scored a power-play goal 2:37 in, then made it 2-0 with his team-leading 16th goal at 8:52.

Fisher scored a short-handed goal at 17:37 to increase the lead to 3-0, and Ottawa added three more goals in the second.

Emery got his fourth career shutout and first since March 19, when he stopped 22 shots in a 4-0 win at New Jersey.

Rostilav Olesz came close to spoiling the shutout when he hit the left post with 3:30 remaining.

"It's always good to get a doughnut and pad the stats a little bit, so when it's 6-0 and there's a couple of minutes left, I'm definitely thinking about getting the shutout," Emery said.

Florida, which lost 1-0 in a shootout at Montreal on Tuesday, has lost five straight and been held to one goal in its last three games.

"I didn't see much positive tonight," Panthers forward Gary Roberts said. "We did some positive things in Montreal, I thought. Tonight, we were just out of sync the whole night. Not much to build on, so we've got a long day (Friday) to try and recover and play at home Saturday night."

Alex Auld allowed five goals on 17 shots before he was replaced by Ed Belfour 6:01 into the second. Auld, who made his third straight start and fifth in six games, earned his second career shutout two nights earlier despite losing after he was beaten twice in the shootout.

Belfour stopped 10 of 11 shots, allowing Vermette's ninth goal 16:10 into the second.

The two children, a brother and sister, and their parents were showered with broken glass as the pane exploded into pieces when Phillips drove the Panthers' center into the boards directly beside the right faceoff circle in the Senators' zone 3:12 into the first period.

A team official confirmed that the two children, who were sitting in front-row seats, had been sent to a hospital by ambulance along with their parents.

"I feel a little bit luckier than the people in the stands," said Phillips, who had a bandage on his left wrist. "I was wearing some glass and cut myself a little bit, but not to the extent that they did. It's pretty tough for them."

Heatley had already given the Senators a 1-0 lead by that point after he took a backhand swipe at Wade Redden's rebound off the boards behind the net, sending the puck slowly over the goal line from a sharp angle.

Notes: Play was delayed for 8 minutes to clean up and replace the broken pane. Weiss did not return until the beginning of the second period. ... Panthers C Joe Nieuwendyk did not dress because of recurring back problems that have caused him to miss seven games this season. Nieuwendyk, who also missed five games from Oct. 11-20 because of a hip flexor injury, has five goals and three assists in 15 games. ... Redden left late in the first with an upper body injury. ... Florida D Mike Van Ryn did not return after he was struck on the right leg by a shot early in the third.