The Backcheck: A wild win in Ottawa

After a disappointing third period in Columbus Thursday night that led to a 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets, the Tampa Bay Lightning came out with a purpose Saturday, skating to a 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre. The win marked the first road victory of the season for the Bolts, who were led by a five-point night from Nikita Kucherov along with a four-point effort and a hat trick from Brayden Point.

Despite a quick start for the Lightning, Ottawa opened the scoring at the 12:58 mark of the first period with Brady Tkachuk redirecting a shot from Mathieu Joseph that got past Jonas Johansson to put the Sens up by one.

The Bolts continued to press and evened the score just 4:07 later with Victor Hedman netting his second goal of the season off assists from Kucherov and Point. With the two forwards showcasing their chemistry and relentlessly cycling the puck in the Ottawa zone, an attempted pass from Kucherov bounced off the skate of Tim Stutzle and right to the back door, where Hedman had crept in to shovel a backhand shot past Joonas Korpisalo and make it a 1-1 game.

After outshooting the Sens 15-7 in the first period, the Lightning kept up the pressure in the middle stanza, recording a 16-9 shot advantage and outscoring Ottawa 3-0.

Point gave the Bolts their first lead of the night 32 seconds into the second period when he took a pass from Kucherov in Tampa Bay’s defensive zone and flew up the right boards into the Ottawa end before roofing a shot over the glove of Korpisalo to make it 2-1.

Mikey Eyssimont scored his third goal of the year with a highlight-reel play 4:25 later to push the Lightning’s lead to 3-1. After Anthony Cirelli blocked a shot in the defensive zone, he found Eyssimont skating downhill into the neutral zone before the relentless forward split the Ottawa defensemen and, as he was falling down, lifted a backhand shot over the glove of Korpisalo with 15:04 left in the middle frame.

Tampa Bay went up 4-1 with 1:41 left in the second when Point scored his second goal of the night. After a shot from Kucherov was stopped by Anton Forsberg, who came on in relief of Korpisalo, Point located the puck under the pad and jammed it over the goal line for the Lightning’s third goal of the period.

The two teams combined for five goals in the third period, with the Bolts finding ways to respond to multiple pushback goals from the Senators to secure the two points.

After Claude Giroux made it 4-2 at the 1:17 mark of the period, Point capped off his hat trick and restored the three-goal lead 7:21 later when he redirected a shot from Steven Stamkos on the power play. Kucherov picked up his fourth helper of the night with the secondary assist.

Ottawa got back within two with a power-play goal of their own from Tkachuk at the 11:08 mark. But Kucherov answered right back for the Bolts only 16 seconds later, redirecting a pass from Alex Barre-Boulet past Forsberg to pick up his fifth point of the night and bring the score to 6-3.

The Senators added a fourth goal from Drake Batherson, but Jonas Johansson shut the door the rest of the way, finishing the night with 24 saves on 28 shots against for his fifth win of the season.

Bolts Quotes

Jon Cooper: “It was a game of responses, to be honest. They get the first one and we came back and tied it. I thought that was big. Then, we come out in the second and score early. Then, when the game got a little hectic, Brady scored and we scored right after that. I thought that was big for us. Every time there was a little bit of adversity for us, we responded. Hence, we pulled it out.”

Brayden Point: “I think it came from a better effort. I really liked our compete tonight and it resulted in a win. That's something that we've got to learn and take moving forward is that compete.”

Mikey Eyssimont: “There were lapses tonight, but I thought we responded to those. If they get a chance on a shift, it doesn't mean we're playing bad, but we've got to respond and not let it snowball.”

Jon Cooper: “I think playing them recently helped us. We had that dreadful first period against them last time we played. We played a couple good periods after that, so we kind of knew what we had in our hands. Let's be honest, they've got some big names out of the lineup for themselves. We had to come in here and take advantage of that. Their style of play, the fact that we played them earlier, I think helped us out tonight.”

Mikey Eyssimont: “I think it started with Kuch dumping pucks in and showing us how to play, how to play hard. He led us tonight, all night. Not just on the scoresheet, but the way he played.”

Bolts by the Numbers

• With one goal and four assists, Nikita Kucherov recorded his fourth career five-point game, surpassing Vincent Lecavalier (3) for the most in Lightning franchise history.
• Brayden Point scored his second career hat trick, making him the 10^th player in Tampa Bay franchise history with multiple hat tricks. He joins Steven Stamkos (11), Martin St. Louis (8), Vincent Lecavalier (6), Tyler Johnson (4), Nikita Kucherov (4), Wendel Clark (3), Freddy Modin (3), Ryan Malone (2) and Teddy Purcell (2).
• Victor Hedman scored his 145^th career goal, tying him with Freddy Modin for the ninth-most goals among all skaters in Bolts franchise history.
• Tampa Bay improved to 4-1-0 when they outshoot their opponent.
• The Lightning moved to 3-0-0 in games when Mikey Eyssimont or Brayden Point score a goal.
• With three goals and one assist, Brayden Point recorded his sixth career four-point game, tying him with Victor Hedman for the fifth-most in Bolts franchise history (most: Nikita Kucherov, 22).

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Nikita Kucherov
2. Brayden Point
3. Mikey Eyssimont

Lightning Look Ahead

Monday, November 6 at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m. ET, Scotiabank Arena

Tuesday, November 7 at Montreal Canadiens, 7 p.m. ET, Bell Centre

Thursday, November 9 vs. Chicago Blackhawks, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets