OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Brady Tkachuk had his second two-goal game as the Ottawa Senators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday night.
Mathieu Joseph, Vladimir Tarasenko and Tim Stützle also scored, while Joonas Korpisalo stopped 22 shots to get his first win with the Senators, who won got their second victory in two nights.
“Two games of playing our type of hockey,” Tkachuk said. “That’s just been our goal. We don’t care about wins or losses, it’s just how quickly we get to our game. I think we’ve shown that we’re starting to find it now, and I think we’re going to keep building on it.”
Anthony Cirelli and Tanner Jeannot each scored for the Lightning, and Matt Tomkins had 33 saves in his NHL debut.
Both teams had played Saturday with the Senators beating Philadelphia 5-2, while Tampa Bay fell 6-4 to Detroit.
Leading 3-2, Tkachuk was able to give the Senators some breathing room midway through the third period when he beat Darren Raddysh in a race and scored five-hole on Tomkins. Stützle added an empty-net goal, with Korpisalo picking up the secondary assist.
“Winning is exciting,” Tarasenko said. “We had a lot of talks before the season. When you win, everything is different. Like, the mood is different, you know, the atmosphere and confidence level.”
Ottawa outshot Tampa Bay 17-3 in the first period, scoring the opening goal for the third straight game when Tarasenko got a backhanded pass from Ridly Greig and beat Tomkins from down low 7:02 into the game.
“People are going to sit there and look at the first period and say oh my god, they just have 17- 3 or whatever it was,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said, “but we’re looking at chances that actually have a chance of going into the net and pucks I guess directed at the net that have a chance, but we didn’t feel like we gave them a whole lot.”
Tomkins weathered the early onslaught and looked solid.
“(Tomkins) was unbelievable,” Cirelli said. “You know from the first puck drop he made huge saves and kept us in that game the whole game. Huge credit to him the way he came in here and he made saves and played really well.”
The Lightning tied it in the opening minute of the second as Cirelli crossed to the front of the net uncontested and roofed a shot over Korpisalo.
Midway through the period, Raddysh blocked Tkachuk’s shot and dropped allowing the Senators’ captain to grab the loose puck and make it 2-1 at 8:48.
Tampa Bay tied it again with 7 minutes left in the middle period when Jeannot capitalized on the rebound of a shot by Victor Hedman.
“The two goals they score, we give them tap-ins there,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “And that’s hard for a goalie sometimes, but give our guys credit, give the (defense) credit, we came out ready to play, we held the chances down, but certainly we have to manage those big-time breakdowns.”
With just under a minute to play in the second, Tarasenko picked off a drop pass by Tampa Bay’s Nick Perbix and passed it to Joseph, fired it into the top corner to put Ottawa ahead again.
“It was just a tough goal to give up with a minute left and we had tired D out there and again, they catch a break,” Cooper said. “You know, they try and force the puck in, we got a stick on it and it goes right to Joseph and it’s in the net.
“Tkachuk’s goal (Raddysh) blocks it and it goes right on his stick, but we put ourselves in those situations and they capitalized so you know good on them for that.”
MILESTONES
Cooper coached his 800th NHL game Sunday. He has a 481-252-67 record. … Ottawa’s Parker Kelly played in his 100th NHL game Sunday.
SIDELINED
Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos did not play. He is listed day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
SEEING FAMILIAR FACES
Austin Watson returned to Ottawa to face his former team after signing a one-year deal with the Lightning in the offseason.
UP NEXT
Lightning: At Buffalo on Tuesday night.
Senators: Host Washington on Wednesday night.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
