The Senators made a good charge in the third period, but not enough to overcome a sluggish first 40 minutes.
The Ottawa Senators couldn't overcome a dud of a performance through two periods against the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night. Despite a late rally, the Sens fell 6-4 to the Lightning.
As the “Fire DJ” chants rang out throughout the game, the Senators followed a familiar script – they fought back from being down 4-1 heading into the third, where they rallied and fell short. They lost for the fifth time in six games, thanks to Brayden Point’s hat trick and Nikita Kucherov's five-point night (a goal and four assists).
After falling behind 3-1, the Senators pulled Joonas Korpisalo for Anton Forsberg. Korpisalo had been brilliant, keeping the damage to 3 goals on 20 shots. Forsberg, in relief, gave up 3 goals on 17 shots.
Brady Tkachuk was one of the bright spots for the Senators, scoring his seventh and eighth goals of the season. But he wasn't happy with the fans who were booing and chanting.
"Whenever you don't win, it's frustrating, and it's frustrating the constant booing and the bull****, kind of, from the crowd tonight was -- I understand they're a passionate fan base, I love it”, Tkachuk said. "When you face adversity you don't turn your back on the guys out there. We're playing hard. I know it's frustrating but we're not giving up out there. We're fighting to the very end."
After Tkachuk opened the scoring in the first period, the Lightning scored four unanswered goals while dominating the Senators in every facet through two periods. Claude Giroux, Tkachuk and Drake Batherson led the way with third period goals but Tampa kept jumping on Ottawa's defensive mistakes to reclaim momentum.
By the numbers: With his two goals on Saturday night, Tkachuk is on pace for a smooth 65 goals this season. He's tied with Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle for the team lead in points (11).
The Senators look to bounce back against their archrivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Wednesday night at 7pm.