Captain Brady Tkachuk scored twice and had an assist, Vladimir Tarasenko netted his first goal as a Senator as part of a two-point outing and Ottawa beat the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Sunday night.
Tkachuk, who scored in the second and third periods, moved his team-leading goal total to four and helped the Senators earn their fourth straight home win against the Atlantic Division rival Lightning, who lost for the second consecutive night.
Mathieu Joseph and Tim Stutzle also scored for Ottawa, and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (22 saves) won for the first time with the Senators and notched his third career assist.
Playing without team captain Steven Stamkos (lower-body injury), the Lightning saw Tanner Jeannot notch a goal and an assist, and Anthony Cirelli scored.
In his NHL debut, 29-year-old goalie Matt Tomkins stopped 33 of 37 shots for Tampa Bay.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper was behind the bench for his 800th NHL game.
In the second game of back-to-backs for both clubs, the home side struck first on a slick play by Ridly Greig in front of Tomkins.
The second-line center gloved a pass in close from Jakob Chychrun and slid a pass between his legs to the left side to Tarasenko, who scored his first Ottawa goal at the 7:02 mark of the first period.
The Lightning failed on the period’s only power play and were outshot 17-3 in the first 20 minutes.
However, just one minute into the second, Cirelli went forehand-backhand and beat Korpisalo for his first goal this season.
A steal by Claude Giroux on the forecheck led to Tkachuk getting his own rebound off a skate and popping in his third goal of the season from the right circle at 8:48, giving Ottawa a 2-1 lead.
With seven minutes left in the frame, Jeannot found a loose puck just above the crease and lifted in his first tally to knot the contest for the second time.
Inside the period’s final minute, Tarasenko sent a pass from below the goal line that caromed over to Joseph. The former Lightning member then roofed his second goal for Ottawa’s third lead.
Tkachuk slashed in from the left side past defenseman Darren Raddysh, slipping in a tally for a 4-2 lead at 12:53 of the third.
Stutzle’s second goal of the campaign — an empty-netter — rounded out the scoring.
–Field Level Media
