Tampa Bay defense powers Bolts past Senators in 5-1 win
By Ben Ebert
The Tampa Bay Lightning faithful were looking for a response by their team coming into this matchup against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, and oh boy did they get one.
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The Bolts put on a solid performance with a lot of help from their defensemen, finding the back of the net five times in a 5-1 defeat over the struggling Sens.
This game was dubbed as a perfect “trap” game for the Lightning, as this was clearly a David vs. Goliath match, with Ottawa ranking at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and NHL with 49 points, and Tampa Bay leading the league comfortably in first place. But it seems the lackadaisical performances over the last three games, including a crushing 4-1 defeat to a rival Bruins team just two nights ago, were enough to motivate this Lightning squad to come into Amalie Arena ready to play.
The Bolts got on the board, just over seven minutes into the first, on a goal by Victor Hedman. That was quickly followed up by fellow D-man Ryan McDonagh just 1:34 later, giving the Bolts an early 2-0 lead.
The Senators would respond with a quick goal of their own less than a minute after, but that would be all she wrote for the Sens’ side of the scoreboard for the night.
Power D-man Erik Cernak scored in the second, followed by Nikita Kucherov getting his 31st goal on the year to give the Bolts a 4-1 advantage.
In the third period, Mikhail Sergachev slapped a one-timer from the point past the glove of Anderson to put the Lightning up 5-1. It would be the goal that got all six Lightning defensemen on the scoresheet:
Victor Hedman: 1 G, 1 A, 4 SOG, +1
Dan Girardi: 1 A, 3 SOG, +1
Ryan McDonagh: 1 G, 3 SOG, +2
Erik Cernak: 1 G, 1 A, 3 SOG, +2
Braydon Coburn: 2 A, 1 SOG, +1
Mikhail Sergachev: 1 G, 2 SOG, +1
The Bolts were clearly more awake for this game compared to their last performance in Boston. Two nights ago they only put nine shots on net in the first two periods, though they finished with 21 total for the game.
Tonight they pressured Ottawa’s Craig Anderson with 34 shots on goal. The Senators actually outshot the Lightning with 37 of their own, but that goes to show the strong performance by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was back in net for Tampa Bay and finished with 36 saves and a .973 save percentage for the night. Vasilevskiy secured his ninth-straight win while Anderson suffered his tenth-straight loss. The only criticisms of Vasilevskiy’s play are the couple of errant passes he made behind the net that resulted in unnecessary pressure from the Senators.
This was an Ottawa squad that was outmatched and it should be clear why.
The Senators have officially hit the rebuild button, unloading a slew of stars this past trade deadline – including Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel – and further cleaned house yesterday morning by firing head coach Guy Boucher.
While this victory was not one that should shock the hockey world, it was an important game for the Bolts to rediscover their true capabilities and shake off whatever funk they had been in for the last five days.
The Lightning now have two days off before they continue this four-game homestand on Tuesday night against the Central-leading Winnipeg Jets.
Notable Nuts and BOLTS:
-Kucherov is now just two points shy of tying Vincent Lecavalier’s single-season franchise record of 108 pts.
-Tampa Bay tied the NHL record of 50 wins in 66 games. (ties: 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings)
-The Bolts are now five wins away from setting a new franchise record for most wins in a season. (current record: 54 wins in 2017-18)