Don’t look now, but the Tampa Bay Lightning have strung together three straight games with points. Brandon Hagel’s third-period goal gave the Lightning a late lead, and then Ryan McDonagh’s empty-net goal proved to be the difference as Tampa Bay snapped the Ottawa Senators’ five-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory.
With Ottawa playing their second game in two nights, the Lightning took advantage of the early play and peppered Linus Ullmark, playing in his first game since December, building up a 10-2 shot advantage midway through the period. If you’ve been paying attention to the last month or so, you would know that despite the volume of frozen rubber they threw at Ullmark, they didn’t score.
Brandon Hagel rang one off of the post, but it wouldn’t have counted as the ref had blown the play dead as Hagel was shooting. To make matters worse, the already scrambled up lines, had to be adjusted even further as Nick Paul left the game with an injury. On the end of the ice, Shane Pinto left the game as well as he went awkwardly into the glass behind the Lightning net.
If you’ve been around this game long enough, you knew what was going to happen. Despite the territorial dominance by the Lightning, the Senators were going to open the scoring with a goal that bounced off of three legs, a broken stick, and the goaltender’s helmet. It wasn’t quite that convoluted, but with Erik Cernak in the penalty box, David Perron flung a puck toward the net. It hit Ridly Greig in front of the net and fell straight down. Unfortunately, it was too far for Andrei Vasilevskiy to cover it, and Emil Lilleberg couldn’t get his stick on it to clear it. Michael Amadio was there to put it home.
Michael Amadio (Ridly Greig, David Perron) Power Play, 1-0 Senators
A good period for the Lightning, but once again they were behind on the scoreboard. The process was good, but the results weren’t there, yet. To their credit, they didn’t get frustrated and surprisingly enough, it was a couple of offensively-starved players that finally cracked the Ullmark riddle.
Gage Goncalves dumped the puck into the Senators’ zone and Zemgus Girgensons won the race to the puck and sent the puck back to the point. Nick Perbix sent it to Emil Lilleberg who sent a shot-pass to the middle of the ice. Luke Glendening was in the high slot and deflected it past Ullmark to tie the game.
Luke Glendening (Emil Lilleberg, Nick Perbix) 1-1
Another struggling part of their game, the power play, would give them the lead a few minutes later. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, and with the Lightning, the simple thing is to put the puck on the stick of Nikita Kucherov.
Ottawa thought they had survived a dangerous moment with Brandon Hagel creating chaos in front of the net as usual. Kucherov fed Victor Hedman at the point, and The Big Swede set him up with a one-timer that Kucherov whistled past Ullmark’s glove.
Nikita Kucherov (Victor Hedman) Power Play, 2-1 Lightning
So, they could breathe a little easier right? Not this Lightning team. Two minutes later, Gritty’s best friend Claude Giroux was alone at the top of the circles and whipped the tying goal past a screened Vasilevskiy.
Claude Giroux (Thomas Chabot, Tim Stutzle) 2-2
Heading into the third period of another close game, the Lightning were faced with a couple of adverse outcomes. A loss, which would push them six points back of Ottawa, or a dreaded three-point game if it went to overtime. Brandon Hagel did his best to make sure neither of those outcomes would happen.
Brandon Hagel (unassisted) 3-2 Lightning
The defense took over from there, keeping Ottawa off of the board for most of the period. It helped that Vasilevskiy, who finished with 25 saves, made a couple of spectacular pad saves. With time winding down, the Lightning killed off a penalty and Ryan McDonagh, who had sat in the box for those two minutes, raced down a loose puck and pirouetted a puck into the empty net.
Ryan McDonagh (Victor Hedman, Anthony Cirelli) Empty Net, 4-2 Lightning
Again, the Lightning couldn’t finish the game off easily as they allowed a goal fifteen seconds later.
Drake Batherson (Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot) 4-3 Lightning
With the win, the Lightning moved back into a wild card spot, and within two points of Ottawa, the team they face on Thursday.
