As the NHL standings tighten toward the end of the 2025-26 regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning remain atop the Atlantic Division despite a pair of losses to open the week.
Tampa Bay fell in a 4-2 game in Buffalo on Monday before the Ottawa Senators took a 6-2 win over the Lightning on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay is now 48-24-6 this season, and the team’s divisional road trip trudges forward with a 7 p.m. tilt against the Montreal Canadiens this Thursday. Montreal’s shootout win on Tuesday has them tied with the Sabres and Lightning at 102 standings points, but Tampa Bay remains in first on tiebreakers.
Sabres take Monday game behind Zucker goal, Holmberg exits
The Lightning started their week with a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center, but the night’s main Bolts concern ended up surrounding yet another injury.
Lightning forward Pontus Holmberg exited the game in the third period after a hit and awkward tumble sent him into the boards. The Sabres’ penalty box door was left ajar, allowing the forward to fall into the open door, and Holmberg was forced to leave with an upper-body injury.
The Sabres went on to claim a 4-2 victory despite a pair of tying goals from the Lightning, as Jason Zucker’s goal 7:38 into the second period of a “choppy” game was the difference.
“As a whole we didn’t sustain enough, I thought,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said postgame. “And Buffalo’s got a good team, so they’re a fun team to play against and it can be great hockey. But…it was kind of a choppy game.”
Buffalo broke open the scoring 5:42 into the game on forward Alex Tuch’s 30th goal of the season, this one a shot from the top of the circles for a 1-0 lead.
Nikita Kucherov knotted the score for the Lightning six minutes later on yet another milestone for the team’s leading scorer.
Kucherov accepted a pass from Jake Guentzel in the right faceoff circle on a power-play look and then fired the tying goal past Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen inside the right goalpost. The goal was the 400th of Kucherov’s career, making him the second player in franchise history to the mark (Steven Stamkos 555).
Guentzel’s point was his 85th of the season, a new NHL single season career high.
Buffalo retook the advantage minutes later, this time on a Josh Norris shot from the right faceoff dot to end a rush look for the Sabres with 5:56 left in the opening frame.
After a short break from the scoring, it was Guentzel who tied the game near the four-minute mark of the second period. Defenseman Darren Raddysh held the offensive zone at the right point and got the puck to Brayden Point in the corner, who bursted out to pass to Guentzel near the blue line.
Guentzel ripped his shot from atop the left faceoff circle into the top left corner of the net for the 2-2 goal 3:56 into the period.
Buffalo once again answered, this time on Jason Zucker’s redirection of a point shot for the game-winning goal just before the eighth minute of period two.
“This game definitely had more meaning than some of them, that’s for sure,” Point said. “It’s disappointing not to get the result we wanted, but I think the way we did it is the part that we need to look at. It wasn’t playoffs Game One so there’s still time to learn from it, but hopefully we learn pretty quick.”
The Sabres then added an empty-net goal for the lone score of the third period and a 4-2 final score.
“I honestly didn’t love our game tonight. It was 2-2, we had a pretty good spot and we just gave up a goal with breakdowns in our defensive zone that shouldn’t happen,” Cooper said. “So now we have to chase it in the third. And did we have some good looks? Yeah, we did. But we didn't finish them, so it was too little too late. A little bit frustrating.”
Guentzel and Raddysh co-led the Lightning with two points each, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy ended the night with 25 saves.
Tampa Bay’s penalty kill was a perfect 4-for-4 on a night they were without two of their top penalty killers in forwards Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli.
Still, the Lightning know they have to have a more well-rounded effort as the regular season nears its end.
“There’s never gonna be any quit in this room. Our execution wasn’t quite as sharp, especially in the second there,” Ryan McDonagh said.
“We had a lot of chances to make some plays on the rush or if they weren’t there, put it behind them and grind a little bit. But we kind of got into a little bit too much run-and-gun tonight, and against a team like that that thrives off the rush game, that’s not really a recipe for us at any point in the season. So, we’ve got to get back to our roots here of puck management and defending well and our offense coming off that.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Jason Zucker, BUF (Game-winning goal)
- Jake Guentzel, TBL (Goal, Assist, 6 SOG)
- Alex Tuch, BUF (Goal, 6 SOG)
Senators third period surge beats Lightning
Another divisional game on Tuesday also featured some back-and-forth, but a big third period went in favor of the Ottawa Senators for a 6-2 win over the Lightning.
Tampa Bay put some pressure on the Ottawa Senators in the opening 20 minutes, which ended in a 0-0 tie. The second period then tilted more in favor of Ottawa, but once again the score remained tied at the end of the frame thanks to a goal from each team.
The Senators then used a five-goal third period to swing the result their way.
“It’s a 1-1 game in the third and we’ve got a chance to get points out of this game…We’re a playoff team, we’re just not playing like one right now,” Cooper said, “and we only have a couple of games here to figure it out and see where we land. But we need to be better than we are right now.”
Ottawa made the most of an odd-man advantage to claim the 1-0 lead with 4:14 left in the middle frame.
Captain Brady Tkachuk fed a pass to defenseman Jordan Spence on a 2-on-1 rush after the Lightning got caught deep on offense, and the defender roofed his shot from the right hashmark to open the scoring.
A familiar face in Ottawa made sure not to let the goal affect the Lightning, as former Senator Nick Paul tied the game with only 97 seconds left in the period.
A Corey Perry pass attempt atop the left faceoff circle bounced off an Ottawa skate and bounced to an open Paul at the netfront, where the Lightning forward deked to his backhand and sent the puck off the right goalpost and in for a 1-1 game.
Kucherov got the secondary assist by setting up the play in the neutral zone.
“I thought we had a decent start,” Perry said. “We were playing our game, we were moving, we were skating. And then we gave up some odd-man rushes and started trying to do too much, and they took advantage of it and they capitalized there to get that first one. It’s a game of bounces.”
After only two goals through 40 minutes, the teams combined for six tallies in the final period.
Despite multiple quality looks for the visiting Bolts to start the third period, it was Ottawa that grabbed the lead 2:45 in with the 2-1 goal—forward Fabian Zetterlund fired a shot from deep that bounced off a Lightning defenseman and changed directions into the net.
The Senators then furthered the advantage before the fifth minute, this time on a net drive by defenseman Jake Sanderson that ended with a backhand finish in tight.
Perry found a way to cut the Lightning deficit to 3-2 midway through the third period, camping at the left post to redirect a shot pass from McDonagh.
“I was just trying to get it on net,” Perry said. “Mac and I made eye contact, and he made a great play. I just tried to make a good tip and found a way.”
The Senators solidified the result with a pair of power-play goals 13 seconds apart and an empty-net score by forward Shane Pinto.
“I thought the first two periods were good. The third got a little away from us,” Paul said. “Just when we move our feet, take the puck north and are confident out there skating up the ice, that’s the big part. When we start trying to turn pucks over and make plays, that’s when it bites us.”
Tkachuk led the Senators on offense with four assists, and Stützle had three points. Perry and Paul each finished with a goal and assist to pace Tampa Bay.
Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson ended with 24 saves. The Lightning now turn their attention to the Canadiens, who match the Bolts with 102 standings points.
“At the end of the day we have to figure out how to sustain the first 10 minutes that we really had,” Perry said. “We were all over them, so we’ll figure it out.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Brady Tkachuk, OTT (4 assists)
- Tim Stützle, OTT (Goal, 2 assists)
- Nick Paul, TBL (Goal, assist)
