Tampa Bay Lightning right-wing Ryan Callahan (24) and Ottawa Senators defenceman Cody Ceci (5) battle for the puck in the third period at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Thursday, March 3, 2016. The Lightning defeated the Senators 4-1.Marc DesRosiers
Ben Bishop made 33 saves and Ondrej Palat scored the winner as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 Thursday night.
Cedric Paquette, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos – into an empty net – also scored for Tampa (38-22-4). The Lightning, who wrapped up a four-game road trip, have now won eight straight, tying a franchise record.
Marc Methot scored the lone goal for the Senators (30-28-7) as Andrew Hammond, making his first start since Feb. 11, faced 28 shots.
Leading 2-1 the Lightning put the game out of reach as Kucherov took advantage of a Jean-Gabriel Pageau giveaway and beat Hammond easily at 18:14. Stamkos then added an empty-net goal.
The Senators finally beat Bishop at 5:24 of the third. Zack Smith dropped the puck back to Methot who put it under the crossbar for his third of the season.
In front of 17,943 at Canadian Tire Centre the Senators did all they could to get the tying goal, but just couldn't get anything past Bishop.
Tampa opened the scoring at 4:14 of the second as Paquette eluded Erik Karlsson and knocked home his own rebound. The Senators have now allowed the first goal in 30 of the last 40 games.
The Lightning caught a break late in the period off a turnover at the blueline by the newly acquired Scott Gomez. Palat had an easy goal as Ottawa's Mike Hoffman was tangled up with Hammond giving the goaltender no chance to make a save.
Despite a number of good chances, Ottawa was unable to beat Bishop.
The Senators caught a break early in the first period when Tampa had a goal called back due to goaltender interference. Anton Stralman scored from just inside the blueline, but Ottawa challenged the goal and it was ruled that Erik Condra interfered with Hammond prior to the puck crossing the goal line.
The injury woes got worse for the Senators as they are without defenceman Mark Borowiecki. Borowiecki suffered a right knee injury on his first shift and is out indefinitely.
Notes: C Scott Gomez, who was signed yesterday by Ottawa, made his Senators debut. Ottawa was without G Craig Anderson (lower body, day-to-day). LW Matt Puempel and D Patrick Wiercioch were a healthy scratch. Tampa D missed the game with an undisclosed injury and C Jonathan Marchessault was a healthy scratch.