Brayden Point setup at center ice against Shane Pinto and when the puck was dropped, it was the Senators who came away with the puck first as the 2025-26 season was officially and running for the Lightning and Ottawa on opening night at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida.
The Lightning off to a strong, but in the end, though Nikita Kucherov scored twice and Brayden Point walked away with three points, they were unable to come away with the win as Ottawa defeated Tampa 5-4.
The Lightning struck first in the opening period of the season as Oliver Bjorkstrand struck for the Lightning’s first goal of the season in the fifth minute that was assisted by Jake Guentzel and Point to make it a 1-0 Lightning lead.
Less than two minutes later, in the seventh period Point struck for his first goal of the season with assists by Guentzel and Darren Raddysh to make it a 2-0 Tampa lead.
However, Ottawa struck back in the 10th minute on a goal by Dylan Cozens with assits by Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson that made it 201.
Kucherov joined in on the fun late in the 14th minute for his first goal of 2025 as the Lightning extended their lead to 3-1 with assists on the shot by Victor Hedman and Point.
That’s where the period ended as the game headed to the second period a 3-1 game.
Ottawa got off to a quick start in the second period with Artem Zub scoring the Senators’ second goal of the game with assists by Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle.
They then tied it up in the 15th minute on a goal by Shane Pinto that was assisted by Zub and Tkachuk (his third of the day) to send the opening night game to the third period tied at three a piece.
The Lightning’s offense fell flat in the third period. In the 18th minute the Senators took their first lead of the day on a snap shot goal by Pinto that was assisted by Sanderson to make it a 4-3 game.
Then in 19th minute, the Senators extended their lead a goal by Claude Giroux that was assisted by Pinto and Zub to make it 5-4.
Just :45 seconds later, the Lightning got one goal back on a wrist shot by Kucherov with assists by Raddysh and Hedman, but they were unable to tie it back up before time expired as the Senators went on to defeat Tampa Bay 5-4 to spoil opening night at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, FL.
Tampa returns to the ice on Saturday at 7:00 PM EST as they welcome the New Jersey Devils to Benchmark International Arena for game two of the season.