In Ottawa, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning broke out to a 4-1 lead after two periods of play on Saturday and then had to hold off the Senators in the third for a6-4 win. 
Brayden Point hit for a hat trick and fur points in the win.
Nikita Kucherov added a goal and five points for Tampa.
“I think it all started with [Kucherov] dumping pucks in and showing us how to play, how to play hard,” Lightning forward Michael Eyssimont said. “He led us tonight all night. Not just on the score sheet, but the way he played.”
Jonas Johansson made 24 saves in the win.
Tampa improved to 5-3-3.
“We were playing pretty soundly,” Point said. “Obviously, Ottawa’s such a dangerous team. So good off the rush and they can really score on any chance they get. But for the most part, I thought we did a good job in the first two periods kind of limiting their chances and limiting their team speed.”
Ottawa dropped to 4-6-0..
“I just thought they came out harder than us in the first period,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “They’re on the right side of the puck. We scored first and their top players came to play today. The second period, they took it to us and put a ton of [offensive] zone time on us, and we weren’t able to bounce back.”
Brady Tkachuk‘s first of a double came 13 minutes into the game for a 1-0 lead to the Senators.
Victor Hedman tied it 1-1 at 17:05 .
“I think every time we scored, the next shift they scored. That can’t happen,” Ottawa forward Tim Stützle said. “We’ve got to be more detailed there and more focused, and we can’t turn pucks over. If we score, we have momentum and then it takes everything away again if you have to score right after.”
Point scored his first with 32 seconds gone in the middle frame for a 2-1 lead.
“I think every time we scored, the next shift they scored. That can’t happen,” Ottawa forward Tim Stützle said. “We’ve got to be more detailed there and more focused, and we can’t turn pucks over. If we score, we have momentum and then it takes everything away again if you have to score right after.”
Eyssimont pushed the lad to 3-1 at 4:57.
“I don’t know if tenacity has ever been a problem with him, to be honest,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That’s kind of what he brings every single night. … He never stops on plays, and he didn’t stop on that one and he was rewarded.”
Point’s second of the night came at 18:19 to balloon the lead to 4-1 after two periods.
In the third, Claude Giroux trimmed the deficit to 4-2 at 1:17,
Point finished hit hat trick with a power play midway through the third to make it 5-2.
Tkachuk scored his double at 11:08 for a 5-3 score to Tampa.
“We’re right there,” Tkachuk said. “It’s frustrating that we’re facing a ton of adversity right now, but in here there’s no quit and there never has been. I don’t think we’ve ever showed a time where we’ve quit on the people that paid money to support us. I think it’s non-negotiable in our group that we finish hard no matter what and we leave it out there.”
The thrill of the score lasted 16 seconds when Kucherov hit for his strike to make it 6-3 for Tampa.
“It was a game of responses, to be honest,” Cooper said. “They get the first one and we came back and tied it, and I thought that was big. And then we come out in the second and score early, and then when the game got a little hectic, I think Brady [Tkachuk] scored and we scored right after that.
“And I thought that was big for us. Every time there was a little adversity for us, we responded and we pulled it on.”
Drake Batherson scored at 12:14 for the 6-4 final.
Joonas Korpisalo got the start for the Senators, and yielded three goals, making 17 saves into the second period when he was replaced.
Anton Forsberg made 14 saves in relief.
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