Ben Bishop makes 30 saves as Lightning crush Senators
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Nikita Kucherov made the most of a two-man advantage and changed the momentum late in the first period for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Kucherov had two goals, Ben Bishop made 30 saves and the Lightning beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Thursday night.
"It wasn't a perfect work of art, but we got two points," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We'll take it."
Valtteri Filppula and J.T. Brown also scored for the Lightning.
Ottawa got a goal from Cody Ceci.
Kucherov opened the scoring from the slot off a pass from Steven Stamkos during a 5-on-3 power play with 7.5 seconds left in the first.
"I thought we built off of that," Bishop said. "Had a good second and even better third."
The two-man advantage came after both Chris Wideman and Mark Borowiecki were given minor penalties with 1:16 left in the first. Wideman was called for interference and Borowiecki for holding.
Kucherov made it 3-0 on a rebound of his own shot at 8:33 of the third.
"We found our legs, we found our game," Tampa Bay right wing Ryan Callahan said.
His second goal of the game gave Kucherov 100 NHL points.
Ceci got his first goal in 15 games to end Bishop's shutout bid with 7:54 to play in the third.
"We had enough chances," Senators coach Dave Cameron said. "We didn't bury them."
Bishop made a save on an in-close backhander from Jean-Gabriel Pageau, then stopped the Ottawa center's low left circle shot seconds later midway through the first.
Craig Anderson, making his 13th consecutive start, kept the Senators within one goal 2 minutes into the second by stopping Filppula's shot from the low left circle.
Anderson made 26 saves.
Filppula joined a rush after serving a minor penalty and scored 25 seconds into the third period for a 2-0 lead.
Brown added a late empty-net goal.
Ottawa, which entered with the NHL's top-ranked road power play, failed to score on three opportunities. Tampa Bay went 1 for 3.
NOTES: Lightning LW Ondrej Palat returned after missing 12 games with an ankle injury. ... Ottawa sent G Andrew Hammond (upper body) to Binghamton of the AHL for a "conditioning assignment. He's been out since Nov. 14. ... Tampa Bay assigned backup G Andrei Vasilevskiy to Syracuse and recalled G Kristers Gudlevskis from the AHL club. The move allows Vasilevskiy, who missed the first month of the season due to a blood clot near his collarbone, to get playing time. ... Stamkos has gone seven straight games without scoring a goal.
