The Tampa Bay Lightning came into the game at Ottawa near the top of the Eastern Conference on the strength of their 15-4-1 home record. The Bolts are a different story on the road. They were 2-4-2 in their last eight games away from Amalie Arena. Ottawa had been a nightmare destination for Tampa Bay, going 5-21-4 since January of 1998.
It looked like history was going to repeat itself as the Senators scored 32 seconds into the game when Clarke MacArthur dished a behind the back pass to Kyle Turris in the slot who beat Ben Bishop. This was Bishop’s fourth goal allowed in his last 11 shots faced.
The Bolts would get three power play chances in the period and not cash in on any of them. The Lightning out-shot the Senators 10-6 in the period.
In the second period, the Bolts would come alive and score three goals to take a 3-2 lead.
Victor Hedman scored his fifth of the season on a rebound of a Jonathan Drouin shot at 3:48 of the second period. Matt Carle would also get an assist on the play. It was Hedman’s fifth of the season.
Ottawa’s Mark Stone scored his ninth of the season from the slot at 7:30 from Turris and Erik Karlsson. Bishop allowed the goal right after the Senator’s power play expired.
The Lightning finally connected on the power play on a broken play with Cody Ceci off for hooking, his first penalty of the season. Nikita Kucherov‘s pass to Ondrej Palat went right through him to Tyler Johnson at the left dot. Johnson one-timed it past Sens goalie Robin Lehner to tie the game at two apiece.
Forty-seven seconds later, Steven Stamkos scored his 21st of the year on a vintage play where he circled the goal holding off a defender and slid the puck past Lehner at the left post. The go ahead goal was assisted by Alex Killorn and Hedman. It was Stamkos’ second goal in the last seven games.
Tampa Bay out-shot Ottawa 11-10 in the period.
With 12:02 left in the third period, Tyler Johnson scored his second goal of the game on a brilliant fake shot, cross ice feed from Kucherov to put the Lightning up 4-2. It was Johnson’s 15th of the year. Ondrej Palat got the secondary assist. Yes, the Triplets were at it again.
While goalie Ben Bishop seemed to be fighting the puck, he played well enough, stopping 20 of 22 shots to earn his 19th win of the season.
Tampa Bay out-shot Ottawa 30-22.
Coming into the game, the Bolts were near the top of the NHL in scoring at 3.23 goals per game and had four 10+ goal scorers, but were 2 for 31 on the power play over the last eight games. Nothing changed in this one as Tampa Bay went a dismal 1-9 with the extra man. It seems that they are taking to many chances in moving the puck out of their zone and getting set up in the offensive zone.
At the halfway point of the season, Tampa Bay is 25-12-4 with 54 points, tied with Montreal for the Eastern Conference lead. The Bolts travel to Montreal on Tuesday night.
Radko Gudas (Lower body injury), Mark Barberio and J.T. Brown were the scratches.
(Feature Photo/Getty Images)
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