Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk scored only goal in a shootout, Anton Forsberg made two crucial saves and the Senators beat the host Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Thursday.
Tkachuk, who notched his team-leading 35th goal and an assist in regulation, beat Lightning goalie Matt Tomkins (25 saves) with a backhander in the bottom of the first round during the backup netminder’s first career shootout.
Forsberg (24 saves) made a game-saving stop of a Brayden Point attempt late in overtime and stuffed the Lightning’s top scorer again in the second round of the shootout. Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos missed the target on their shootout attempts, with Stamkos hitting the post.
The Senators (35-40-4, 74 points) got a goal from Drake Batherson as they improved to 4-0 in shootouts this campaign and won the season series 3-1-0 against Tampa Bay.
Ottawa center Tim Stutzle (upper body) was out of the lineup for a fourth consecutive game.
The Lightning (44-27-8, 96 points) got a goal and an assist from both Point and Conor Sheary. Tampa Bay is 11-2-2 in the past 15 games.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov recorded two assists to bring his NHL-leading total to 141 points.
Tampa Bay’s Anthony Duclair (illness) missed the game, while Tyler Motte and Darren Raddysh played in their 400th and 100th contests, respectively.
In a spirited first period, Ottawa’s Jakob Chychrun zipped a long outlet pass to Tkachuk, alone at the blue line, and Tkachuk skated into the right circle and blasted a marker by Tomkins at 8:45.
However, the wizardry of Kucherov evened the score exactly one minute later. Kucherov spun and sent a backhanded pass to Sheary, who netted his fourth tally to knot the game 1-1.
Sheary helped give the Lightning their first lead at 12:56 of the first when he forced a steal off Jake Sanderson behind the Ottawa cage. Kucherov then sent a feed to Point, who faked forehand and went backhand to net his team-high 45th goal.
Starting the third with a five-on-three power play for just over a minute, the Senators could not capitalize. However, Batherson jammed home his 28th off his own rebound after a pass from Tkachuk at 2:11 for a 2-2 tie.
–Field Level Media