Recap: Senators defeat Tampa Bay 4-2

Ottawa snapped a two-game losing streak with a win on Monday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Much of the game centred around the electric play of Mathieu Joseph playing against the team that traded him to Ottawa in 2022.

"I thought that line (Stützle, Giroux and Joseph) has been playing pretty well lately," explained interim head coach Jacques Martin. "It has all the elements to be very efficient not only scoring some goals, but I think they are very good defensively."

The Tampa Bay Lightning came out of the gate strong with six shots on goal in the first six minutes of the game. This included two point shots from Victor Hedman which were tipped before reaching Anton Forsberg, but Ottawa weathered the storm.

The Senators were able to comeback quickly answering with four shots of their own before the halfway mark of the period.

With just 9:15 remaining in the period Tim Stützle picked up the puck off the boards deked Emil Martinsen Lilleberg, avoided a sprawling Darren Raddysh's stick before shooting the puck low blocker side to give the visitors the lead.

With 6:24 remaining Mathieu Joseph blocked a shot at his own blue line. Tim made a smart pass to outwait the Tampa centre and get the puck to Giroux. Giroux sent the puck back to his left finding Joseph who wasted no time in making it 2-0 with a low blocker shot on Vasilevskiy.

With just over a minute left in the period Joseph got another chance. After a board battle to the right of Forsberg the puck bounced out and all the way into the Tampa end. It came down to a foot race between Joseph and Vasilevskiy. The goaltender got there just ahead of the speedy winger and fired the puck safely to the corner. Tampa couldn’t clear their zone and a Joseph ended up with yet another chance when he tipped Jacob Chychrun’s shot on goal, but not behind Vasilevskiy.

The second period started in much the same manner as the first period ended. Tampa was only able to muster a single shot through the first eight minutes.

Once the Lightning got going they had two strong chances though. The first was a point shot by Erik Černák that Forsberg kicked aside with his right pad. Just over a minute later Stamkos had a chance untouched from the slot, but Forsberg flashed the glove and took away the chance.

It looked like the first penalty of the game would be called with with 5:55 to play in the second period when Mitchell Chaffee dumped Stützle with a late hit to draw a scrum, but the referees stay quiet and the skaters remained even on both sides.

As the second period wound down Stamkos tried to gain the Sens blueline only to be stripped of the puck by Joseph. The winger beat Černák in a foot race to get a breakaway and made no mistake with a snapshot low blocker side to give Ottawa a three-goal lead.

When the Senators were able to get control of the puck again Tkachuk out-muscled two defenders and passed to Vladimir Tarasenko from the corner but he was stopped by Vasilevskiy.

As final minute of the second period came closer Forsberg was forced to stop Tampa twice on back-to-back plays from point blank range to keep the 3-1 Senators lead.

Tampa started the third period on their heels giving up two shots in the first minute. However, the Senators couldn’t finish.

Shane Pinto fired a long bank pass to Brady Tkachuk who pulled away on a two-on-one with Tarasenko. Brady elected to shoot, but the juicy rebound off Vasilevskiy’s right pad bounced right Tarasenko who put the puck into the open net.

Tampa again answered immediately when Brayden Point snuck in behind the Senators defenseman after two Ottawa players collided. Point took the pass from Brandon Hagel and cut the lead in half.

With just 9:13 left to play the officials called the first penalty of the game when Pinto was pulled down by Cernak. The ensuing power play generated some chances, but failed to extend the Ottawa lead. The best opportunity came from Drake Batherson just as the penalty was about to expire. The rightwinger carried the puck out of the corner almost jamming it home on the short-side.

With three and a half minutes left Tampa sent their goalie to the bench for the extra skater. Their first chance was easily gloved down by Forsberg and while Tampa moved the puck well, but Fosberg and the Senators defenders didn’t allow the Lightning back in the game.

Ottawa's win makes the 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and are back at it tomorrow night when the battle the Florida Panthers.