It was a struggle for much of the night for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They couldn’t string passes together for much of the night, turned the puck over, and skated in just poured asphalt for much of the night. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators played like a team desperate for points as their speed gave the Lightning fits all night long. However, midway through the third period the Bolts were down just a goal. Two quick power play goals from the Ottawa Senators turned a 3-2 game into a 5-2 one before adding an empty net goal to bring the final to 6-2.

With multiple forwards out, the Lightning started a Syracuse line with Dylan Duke, Conor Geekie, and Jakob Pelletier skating together. Jonas Johansson had the start and made 26-of-31 saves in the loss.

First Period:

Early in the game it was the Senators that had the majority of the zone time, but the Lightning were solid in their zone coverage. During a four-on-four, the smooth skating Jake Sanderson wheeled around the zone, but he was shadowed by Ryan McDonagh the entire time and never found a lane to shoot from. A Connor Geekie penalty led to a power play for Ottawa early in the period, but yielded just one shot. The Sens tried a few backdoor passes, but the coverage was there to prevent any tap-in goals. First it was a Jake Guentezel backcheck that turned away a chance, then Emil Lilleberg erased a play before it developed.

Following the penalty kill, the Lightning spent some time in the Ottawa zone. Their game plan was simple. Get the puck to the point and get the shot through. While the shot counter kept turning, and the Lightning were retrieving pucks, they weren’t really getting much from in front of the net. Nick Paul had a rebound chance that Ullmark was able to swallow up fairly easily.

Momentum swung back to the home side with Warren Foegele turning a defender and driving the net to get a good chance on Johansson. A stretch of play followed where the Lightning struggled to exit the zone cleanly and Ottawa turned up the pressure. Tampa Bay was able to survive the wave and make it to the buzzer scoreless.

Second Period

The middle frame started kind of slow with the Lightning’s best chance on a deflection from Corey Perry. Brady Tkachuk managed to get behind the Lightning defense, but his breakaway was slowed by the referee who screened him a bit, and his shot went wide.

A Lightning power play…happened. Yeah, that’s about the best way to describe it. It existed. It’s in the box score, but that’s about it. Ottawa had a nice run of possession shortly after as the Lightning ran into some icing issues, but much like the first period, the pressure was kept to the perimeter and Johansson answered the bell whenever a shot did make its way through.

A play through the neutral zone finally broke the goal drought. A long pass through the neutral zone turned into a two-on-one and Jordan Spence found the back of the net on glove side.

Jordan Spence [7] (Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle) 1-0 Senators

The Lightning answered less than three minutes later. After struggling to get through the neutral zone for much of the period, the Lightning finally had a clean entry, and a bit of a lucky bounce went their way. A centering pass by Corey Perry was knocked down by the Senators, but the puck went right to Paul who had cut to the front of the net. He backhanded the puck off of the post (and crossbar) and into the net.

Nick Paul [7] (Corey Perry, Nikita Kucherov) 1-1

Third Period

After being stymied for much of the second period, the Lightning had some chances early with Ullmark deflecting a rebound opportunity from Brayden Point and then Guentzel put one off the crossbar off of the ensuing face-off win.

Unfortunately, it was Ottawa that broke the tie as Tkachuk put one off the near post that shot past the Lightning defenders right to Fabian Zetterlund who was charging into the zone. His shot hit something in front of the net and an off-balance Johansson could just wave his blocker at it before it was past him.

Fabian Zetterlund [14] (Brady Tkachuk, Cameron Crotty) 2-1 Senators

Three or four times throughout the game, the Senators have driven the net from an angle. It finally paid off for them as Jake Sanderson beat J.J. Moser to the front of the net and was able to slide it under Johansson to make it 3-1. The Senators’ speed was finally wearing down the Lightning, and Johansson wasn’t able to bail them out.

Jake Sanderson [12] (Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuck) 3-1 Senators

The Lightning looked tired on the ice. They weren’t skating well, and their puck-handling wasn’t great. Despite their night-long struggles, they managed to crawl back within a goal. On one of their few smooth entries through the zone, they were able to set up and Ryan McDonagh found Corey Perry down low and the trade deadline acquisition tipped it into the back of the net.

Corey Perry [16] (Ryan McDonagh, Nick Paul) 3-2 Senators

The scoring flurry continued as Ottawa scored on the power play when Tim Stutzle crashed the net and put home a rebound. A challenge for goaltender interference from the Lightning went for naught and Ottawa wasted no time taking advantage of the gifted power play as Jake Sanderson streaked down the ice to put the puck past Johansson. Just like that it was 5-2.

Tim Stutzle [34] (Dylan Cousins, Drake Batherson) Power Play, 4-2 Senators

Jake Sanderson [13] (Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson) Power Play, 5-2 Senators

Tampa Bay pulled the goalie with 4:30 left which increased to a two-man advantage when Ottawa took a penalty. Did it matter? No. Shane Pinto won the race for a loose puck and put it into the empty net.

Shane Pinto [22] (Unassisted) Short-Handed, 6-2 Senators

Montreal’s win shootout win against Florida set up a battle for the top of the standings on Thursday as the Canadiens join Tampa Bay and Buffalo at 102 points.