Ottawa’s Patrick Wiercioch beat Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop with just 16.9 seconds left in overtime to give the Senators a 2-1 victory over the Lightning at the Canadian Tire Centre. It was the Bolts fourth loss in their last five games. Certainly not the way they want to move into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Jonathan Drouin scored the lone Lightning goal.
The start of the first period was a rough one for Tampa Bay. despite having control of the puck a good percentage of time. Errant passes and a couple of icing calls slowed the Bolts down. The period saw two rookies score.
At 5:03 Ottawa’s Mark Stone scored his 20th goal of the season from Kyle Turris and Clarke MacArthur. Stone was alone in front and beat Bishop off a rebound to make it 1-0 Senators.
Jonathan Drouin evened things up with a power play goal at 16:53, assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Anton Stralman. Drouin had gone 42 games without a goal and has two in his last three games.
Shots for the period were 15-9 in favor of the Senators.
The scoreless second period was a goaltenders dual between the Lightning’s Ben Bishop and the Senators’ Andrew Hammond. Both made key saves, especially Hammond who thwarted the Bolts on three power plays. Tampa Bay’s defense was sparkling, only allowing Ottawa eight shots, while the Bolts had ten.
Both teams had great scoring chances in the third period, but again, the goalies stood their ground and the game went into overtime.
Shots in the third period were 8-8. making it 31-27 Ottawa for the game.
In the overtime, goalie Ben Bishop made three huge saves, two on Erik Karlsson that kept the game going. But Ottawa’s Patrick Wiercioch scored with 16.9 seconds left to win it for Ottawa. Kyle Turris and Mark Stone assisted on the game winner.
Shots for the game were 34-29 in favor of Ottawa.
The Bolts picked up a point to bring their season total to 102. The Montreal Canadiens also lost in a shootout and lead Tampa Bay by a point for the Atlantic Division title.
Earning a point, coupled with a Red Wings loss to Boston, The Lightning reduced their magic number for earning home ice in the first round of the playoffs to one.
Victor Hedman (lower body), Braydon Coburn (lower body), Andrej Sustr (upper body), Jason Garrison (upper body) and Tyler Johnson (upper body) were the scratches.
The Lightning will visit the Florida Panthers Saturday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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