TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning couldn’t say they didn’t have their chances Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators.
Tampa Bay had more than 16 minutes of power-play time and more than doubled Ottawa’s shots on goal. The Lightning spent most of the night frustrated that they couldn’t make good on numerous opportunities.
Their mistakes were glaring, from the turnover that led to former Tampa Bay forward Mathieu Joseph’s short-handed goal on a 5-on-3 Lightning power play to a rare Andrei Vasilevskiy turnover that led to the Senators’ go-ahead goal in the third period.
Yet, despite going into the final eight minutes down a goal, the Lightning scored twice, including Nikita Kucherov’s winner with 2:30 remaining, to win their third straight game, 4-3.
Brayden Point, who scored the game-tying goal less than five minutes earlier, took a puck from behind the net and fed Mikhail Sergachev, who found Kucherov for a tightly-angled shot from the bottom of the right circle.
Nick Paul appeared to score an empty-net goal in the final minute, but Tampa Bay was offsides on the play.
After spending most of the first three weeks of this season on the road, the Lightning hoped to start stringing some wins together at home Tuesday night. The game marked the beginning of an 11-game stretch that includes nine at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning had many man-advantage opportunities, including a five-minute power play when Ottawa forward Dylan Gambrell was assessed a match penalty for elbowing Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak in the head with the game tied at 1.
The Lightning had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:34 but allowed two breakaways with costly turnovers. Vasilevskiy stopped the first, but when Joseph — a top penalty-killing forward in his days in Tampa Bay — beat a diving Steven Stamkos to the puck and streaked to the net alone, he beat Vasilevskiy on the blocker side.
Vasilevskiy then made one of his best stops of this young season, keeping it a one-goal game after Alex Killorn committed a turnover in the Senators zone with the Lightning short-handed.
Drake Batherson had an open net along the right post on a 2-on-none breakaway, but Vasilevskiy extended his left leg, blocking Batherson’s shot with his pad just in front of the goal line.
Killorn tied the game at 2 with 8:56 to play, but the excitement was short-lived as Claude Giroux took advantage of Vasilevskiy’s bad pass from behind the net to put the Senators ahead 40 seconds later.
Point tied the game with 7:05 remaining, weaving his way through traffic and putting the puck past Ottawa goaltender Anton Forsberg on the blocker side.
