Martin St. Louis scored a tiebreaking goal in the third period to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Adam Hall added a goal for the Lightning, who got 31 saves from Dwayne Roloson.
Zack Smith scored the lone goal for the Senators. Brian Elliott stopped 25 shots.
The Senators, coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, got off to a slow start. They were being outshot 7-1 halfway through the first period.
Despite the Senators' offensive struggles, Ottawa's penalty-killing was solid against the Lightning late in the first after Jarkko Ruutu took two minor penalties on the same shift. Elliott made a number of big saves, including one on Steven Stamkos.
Roloson, acquired by the Lightning last week, was solid in the second period. He made saves on Milan Michalek and Nick Foligno, but he was unable to stop Smith.
The Senators took a 1-0 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the frame as Jesse Winchester — on a 2-on-1 break — fed a perfect pass to Smith, who beat Roloson low to the stick side.
Tampa Bay forward Dominic Moore took advantage of a giveaway by Alex Kovalev just inside Ottawa's blue line early in the third. Moore carried the puck just to the right of Elliott, dropped it back to Hall — who was left alone — and had a wide-open left side to tie the game.
The Lightning took the lead at 5:43 of the third on St. Louis' 18th goal. On that play, Senators forward Mike Fisher was injured while blocking a shot and left the game. Fisher returned for one shift, but was then done for the night.
The Senators made a mad scramble to tie the game in the closing seconds, but couldn't force overtime.
