Perry cut the deficit to 3-2 at 10:35, redirecting a pass from Ryan McDonagh over Ullmark’s blocker from the left of the crease.

“I thought we had a decent start,” Perry said. “We’re playing our game, we’re moving, we’re skating, and then we kind of gave up some odd-man rushes and started trying to do too much, and they took advantage of it.” 

Stutzle pounced on a puck that came loose during a goal-mouth scramble and scored a power-play goal from in front at 12:51 to push the lead to 4-2. 

“It doesn’t matter what team they have, we just try and play our game every night and I think we can stack up against anyone,” Stutzle said. 

Tampa Bay challenged for goaltender interference, but Stutzle’s goal was upheld after video review.

“Bottom line is, we’re down by two. There’s not a ton of time left in the game, and we weren’t getting a ton of opportunities at the time, so I thought they dislodged it,” Cooper said. “They didn’t. But in the end, you can’t give them a breakaway goal what was it six, seven seconds into the power play? So I didn’t think that really had an impact on the game.”

On the ensuing power play, Sanderson extended it to 5-2 just 13 seconds later at 13:04. He took a pass from Tkachuk and finished a forehand-backhand deke from in tight for his second goal of the game.

“Teams do it across the League,” Sanderson said. “So just try to catch them off guard and it worked, so it’s kind of nice.” 

Shane Pinto scored a short-handed, empty-net goal at 16:41 to secure the 6-2 final.

“We talk a lot about confidence,” Green said. “Wanting to be in these moments. Our goal isn’t just to make the playoffs, we wanna win the Stanley Cup.” 

NOTES: Tkachuk became the fourth different Senators player in the past decade with multiple four-point games in a single season. The others: Stutzle (twice; most: three games in 2022-23), Batherson (three games in 2021-22) and Erik Karlsson (two games in 2015-16). … Spence set a new career high for points in a season with 29 (seven goals, 22 assists), besting his previous high of 28 he set during the 2024-25 season. … Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov extended his point streak to four games (three goals, three assists).