OTTAWA, ON – The Tampa Bay Lightning won their eighth game in a row with a 4-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.
Cedric Paquette, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos scored, and Ben Bishop made 33 saves for the Lightning (38-22-4), who finished a four-game road trip.
Bishop, who was acquired by the Lightning from the Senators in April 2013, is 9-0-3 against his former team.
“Any time you play your old teams, you’re going to have some motivation,” Bishop said. “I know every game is the same. It’s not like you get more jacked up for this one, but at the same time, you know the scenario.”
Marc Methot scored and Andrew Hammond made 24 saves for the Senators (30-28-7).
The Senators fell seven points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
The Lightning’s eight-game winning streak tied the team record set during the 2003-04 season when they won the Stanley Cup; six of the eight wins have come on the road.
“It’s a huge confidence boost. We’re very happy with the way we’ve been playing, especially on the road,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “We’ve been able to kill games off which wasn’t happening at the beginning of the year. We usually put ourselves behind the 8-ball, but to get the lead, extend the lead and protect the lead has been huge for us as of late.”
The first period was scoreless after a goal by Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman at 5:25 was disallowed after a successful coach’s challenge by Senators coach Dave Cameron. It was ruled Lightning forward Erik Condra interfered with Hammond.
Paquette and Palat each jumped on rebounds to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead after two periods.
Paquette’s goal was scored in transition. After the puck was cleared out of the Ottawa zone, Hedman moved it up quickly and Paquette got a shot off, which Hammond stopped. With J.T. Brown going to the net, Paquette followed up his shot into the slot and scored on the rebound for his fifth goal of the season at 4:14.
Palat made it 2-0 at 18:33. The play started with Scott Gomez, playing his first game for the Senators, fumbling the puck inside the Lightning zone as a Tampa Bay penalty expired.
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Tyler Johnson raced down the right wing and circled the net, attempting to score on a wraparound. Hammond stopped it, but Palat arrived to knock in the loose puck for his eighth goal of the season as Senators forward Mike Hoffman bumped into Hammond.
Methot scored his third of the season to make it 2-1 at 5:24 of the third period when he took a pass from Zack Smith at the top of the circle and scored on a shot high to Bishop’s glove side.
Bishop made several saves after, including a string of three on Senators forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau, the hero of Ottawa’s comeback against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
The win was indicative of the way Tampa Bay has been playing lately after an even start to the season. The Lightning were 13-12-3 on Dec. 6.
“We were kind of up and down in that first half of the year and injuries kind of played a major part into why we were up and down,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “A trip to the Final last year and being new to all that probably played a little bit of a part, but since Christmas time these guys have dug their heels in and it’s been a lot of fun to be around them.”
After winning four games in a row, the Senators are 1-2-1 in their past four games.
“I liked a lot of things, but we’ve said all along it’s about results. We did a lot of real good things, but didn’t get the result we wanted,” Cameron said. “I thought we had a real good team game. I didn’t think we had any passengers tonight at all. We knew coming in against Tampa Bay, the reason they’re a good team is they play fast and they’re going to make us play fast.”
Kucherov scored his 25th of the season with 1:46 left in the third when he jumped on a turnover by Pageau.
Stamkos scored an empty-net goal with 14 seconds remaining, his 29th of the season.
The Senators played most of the night with five defenseman after Mark Borowiecki sustained a right knee injury early in the first period. He will be out indefinitely.
