Lightning defeat Senators, tie NHL record for fastest to 50 wins

TAMPA -- The Tampa Bay Lightning tied an NHL record with their 50th win in 66 games by defeating the Ottawa Senators 5-1 at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

The Lightning (50-12-4) matched the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for quickest to reach 50 wins.
"We want to win as many games as we can," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "It was good to bounce back from a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday]. We wanted to come out and play hard."
***[WATCH: [All Senators vs. Lightning highlights]*
Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Erik Cernak, Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev scored for the Lightning, who are 11-1-0 in their past 12 games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves in his ninth straight victory.
The Lightning tied a team record by getting nine points from their defensemen.
"There was a lot of chatter on the bench after [Sergachev] got the fourth one," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "The pressure was on [Dan Girardi] and [Braydon Coburn]. There was a big-time shooting mentality from the back end. I like that mentality."

Anthony Duclair scored for the Senators (22-38-5), who have lost seven straight. Craig Anderson made 29 saves.
"I think we battled hard, we worked hard, we lost too many one-on-one battles and it showed," Senators forward Mikkel Boedker. "But the effort was there, and they are the number-one team in the League for a reason."
Hedman made it 1-0 with his ninth goal of the season at 7:17 of the first period when he knocked in a rebound off a shot from Dan Girardi. McDonagh increased the lead to 2-0 at 8:51 with a wrist shot off a pass from Cernak.
"The forwards did a good job of getting us involved," Hedman said. "My goal is a perfect example of us moving around and trying to create some confusion and we had a lot of good shifts."
Kucherov had an assist on McDonagh's goal, his 75th of the season. The NHL scoring leader (106 points) is the first player to record 75 assists in a season since Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks did it in 2010-11.
"It's a good sign that, first and foremost, we're not spending a lot of time in our zone," McDonagh said. "Our forwards have a ton of skill and vision to find us and put us in positions to get pucks to the net. We're fortunate a few of them went in tonight."
Duclair made it 2-1 at 9:28 of the first period when he finished a 2-on-1 with a chip that scored on the far post.
Cernak made it 3-1 with his third goal of the season at 3:15 of the second period. Kucherov followed with his 31st goal of the season to make it 4-1 at 15:27 of the second period.
"We saw [their defensemen] in videos and stuff," Senators defenseman Dylan DeMelo said. "They move around a lot. Top to bottom they have a really good team. That's a team that's going to have a good run in the playoffs."
Sergachev made it 5-1 with his fifth goal of the season at 1:59 of the third period.
Senators forward Bobby Ryan missed a penalty shot at 5:06 of the second period after Kucherov was called for slashing him on a breakaway.
"[Vasilevskiy] made a good save," Ryan said. "I did what I wanted to do with the puck but I missed my mark a little bit. If I score there it kind of changes the complexion of the game a little bit."

They said it

"I didn't like the number of puck battles we lost tonight. The NHL is a league that if you win puck battles you win the game and they were so far ahead of us in terms of their ability to win puck battles. It isn't all about skill, it's about commitment." -- Senators coach Marc Crawford after his Ottawa debut
"Our senior adviser [Steve Yzerman] was on that [1995-96 Detroit Red Wings] team so it's probably good we didn't break that record. We just tied it. Years from now we might look back on that but you know what the guys want and what they are playing for." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper on 50 wins in 66 games.

Need to know

The Lightning have reached 50 wins three times (2014-15, 2017-18, 2018-19), all under Cooper. ... The Senators have given up five or more goals 22 times this season. … Nine points by defensemen from one team in a game are the most in the NHL this season. … Senators forward Brady Tkachuk had a game-high seven shots on goal. … Kucherov has 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) in his past 11 games. … Lightning captain Steven Stamkos left during the second period after a collision with Brian Gibbons but returned in the third period. Cooper said it was mandatory.

What's next

Senators: At the Florida Panthers on Sunday (5 p.m.; FS-F, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday (7:30 p.m.; SUN, TSN3, NHL.TV)