The Ottawa Senators scored two goals on the power play and added one shorthanded to deal the Tampa Bay Lightning a 5-4 loss–Tampa Bay’s first of the season–on Saturday despite numerous Lightning rally attempts.
A 5-on-3 power play resulted in a 1-0 advantage for the home team 1 minute, 58 seconds into the game at the Canadian Tire Centre. Forward Drake Batherson one-timed a slap shot from the left faceoff circle to give his team the lead on the two-man advantage.
A Brady Tkachuk power-play goal before the end of the second period restored Ottawa’s lead after a pushback from the visiting Lightning had tied the game 3-3, and Noah Gregor’s short-handed goal 6:17 into the third period stood as the game-winner for the Senators.
“Well, that’s tough. That’s pretty much the difference of the game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the early 5-on-3 and special teams.
“We lost the special teams war tonight,” Cooper said. "That was the difference in the game. Usually we can win that war, but (this) league’s too good. They got their breaks and they made the best of them, and we didn’t take advantage of ours.”
Ottawa led 2-0 through one period before Nikita Kucherov gave the Lightning a boost by scoring his seventh goal of the season. Kucherov scored on a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from defenseman Ryan McDonagh, cutting Ottawa’s lead in half.
Kucherov's seven goals are the most by any skater in franchise history through four games.
Forward Nick Paul pulled the Lightning even with the Senators midway through the second period. Anthony Cirelli found a bouncing puck in front of the Ottawa net on a rush and tapped the puck back to a waiting Paul atop the crease. Paul shoveled the puck through a crowd of defenders serving as a screen in front of Senators goalie Anton Forsberg, tying the game 2-2.
Despite Ottawa taking a 3-2 advantage on Batherson’s second goal of the game 13:20 into the second, Tampa Bay again pulled even with the Senators thanks to one of the team's offseason additions.
Forward Jake Guentzel scored his first goal as a Bolt, batting a puck to the ice before sneaking it through Forsberg’s pads to again tie the game, this time 3-3, with 1:47 to play in the second period.
The tie did not last long for Tampa Bay, as Senators captain Brady Tkachuk utilized the team's second power-play goal of the game to regain the lead 43 seconds after Guentzel’s tying goal.
Tkachuk converted a rebound after a shot from the point on the man advantage.
“I think the biggest thing is we just hurt ourselves with some penalties. … It’s hard to get the momentum going when you’re in the box and you’re down,” Paul said. “But that’s the way it goes sometimes, and we’ve got to learn from it and be disciplined.”
The Lightning had a chance to tie the game in the third period on their own 5-on-3 power play, but Gregor instead pushed the home team’s lead to 5-3 at the 6:17 mark of the period on a shorthanded 2-on-1.
“We put ourselves in tough spots, especially taking some of those penalties, and we couldn't kill them off,” Cooper said. “What’d they score, five? Two power play and one shorty, so you can sway the 5-on-5 game our way, but special team war was what the difference was.”
Forward Mitchell Chaffee showed the Lightning’s fighting spirit again late in the game, pulling his team within a goal of tying Ottawa with 11:49 remaining. Chaffee scored his first goal of the season by deflecting a pass from Nick Perbix, whose assist stood for his first point of the campaign.
Ottawa held on late for the 5-4 win.
The Lightning are 3-1-0 this season and now prepare for their first back-to-back as the team travels to Toronto for a Monday game and follows it with a visit to New Jersey on Tuesday.
McDonagh, an assistant captain for the Lightning, said his team can use Saturday’s loss as a lesson.
“It comes down to special teams tonight. We’ve been pretty solid the first few games in that aspect and tonight it was just the opposite for whatever reason. A little poor execution,” the defenseman said.
“Our heart and our effort is in the right place, and that still gave ourselves a chance (of) keeping it close there, but obviously we want to be sharp in those areas. We take a lot of pride in being a really good team (at) special teams and tonight it just got away from us. So it is what it is, we’ll look at things, and we’ll respond the right way.”
