On Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Mikhail Sergachev scored in the third period to close a deficit for the Lightning to 3-2 with the Ottawa Senators. 
Ottawa replied to the pressure with four straight goals in a 7-2 win over Tampa.
Brady Tkachuk scored twice, once on the power play and once into an empty net, in the third period outburst.
“We clearly got some bounces, we haven’t scored first a ton,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “In a lot of games, we’ve just been grinding and squeezing, but a couple went in for us tonight and we played with a lot of confidence.”
Ottawa’s Erik Brannstrom and Austin Watson bookended the Tkachuk goals in the third.
“It’s fun to play some offensive hockey and contribute out there,” Brannstrom said. “It was great for us. We had a lot of good efforts from a lot of the guys tonight. We have to keep going with the push here.”
Mads Sogaard made 27 saves. in the Ottawa win.
The Senators moved to 35-32-5.
Alex DeBrincat hit a double in the first period to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead.
“I thought we played pretty good from start to finish and played well in our zone too,” DeBrincat said. “I felt like our line did pretty well. It’s been tough to get them by the goalies lately.
Brayden Point scored midway through the middle frame to shave the lead to 2-1 for the Bolts.
“It’s unfortunate, we’re having a little tough stretch here, but it’s all self-inflicted,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Not sure when they are going to learn. There’s a little bit of us feeling sorry for ourselves.”
The Lightning dropped to 42-25-6 off their third straight loss.
“I thought we had a really good start and some good chances … we never could get over that hump around the first couple of goals,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “It’s not from lack of effort, maybe lack of execution. But we’re running out of time.”
Derick Brassard scored off the power play with less than two minutes left on the second period clock for a 3-1 advantage headed to the third.
Brian Elliott made 28 saves in the Tampa loss.
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