Point helps Lightning defeat Senators for 2nd time in 3 days

TAMPA -- Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Ottawa Senators for the second time in three days, 5-1 at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel also scored, and Nikita Kucherov had two assists for the Lightning (29-20-4), who have won three of four, including a 4-3 victory against Ottawa here on Tuesday. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves.

Hagel (Canada), Point (Canada) and Guentzel (United States) will represent their respective countries in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20.

"It was a massive two games for us," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We had this five-game homestand, we dropped the first one to Chicago, but for us to get seven out of the next eight [points] was pivotal. Especially against a division rival that we're neck-and-neck with. And they were hot coming in."

Michael Amadio scored for the Senators (29-22-4), who have lost consecutive games after winning five straight. Anton Forsberg made 26 saves.

"The score was 5-1, but we played a pretty good game," Ottawa coach Travis Green said. "I hate saying that when you lose 5-1, but it's a 2-1 game with five minutes left. We played a lot better tonight than we did in the first game."

Guentzel gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 9:23 of the first period when he poked in a loose puck off a rebound of a shot from Point.

"Obviously a great effort, this was a huge two games for us," Guentzel said. "This is our identity; we've got to not give up much because that's a high-scoring team over there. I think it's easy to get up for these games...playoff mentality against a team we're fighting against."

Amadio tied it 1-1 at 5:27 of the second period with a redirect past Vasilevskiy off an initial shot from Tim Stutzle, who extended his point streak to seven games.

"Just trying to keep things a little simple," said Amadio, who also scored Tuesday. "Both my goals were in front of the net. Just going into the hard areas more and getting rewarded.

"I think it was a little closer game than the score showed there at the end. We did a lot of good things and it's a good game to build off of. Hopefully we can regroup tomorrow and come back on Saturday (at the Florida Panthers).”

Hagel put the Lightning back ahead 2-1 at 10:14 when he beat Forsberg five-hole on a breakaway. Ryan McDonagh set up the play with a pass from the red line that Hagel took off the boards.

"Lot of positives for sure," McDonagh said. "We've got a group that understands when we can execute, we've got good structure and when we're a little crisper with our plays we can be pretty effective and tough to play against.”

Point extended it to 3-1 at 15:44 of the third period, scoring from the right circle after Kucherov found him open from the half wall.

Erik Cernak scored an empty-net goal at 19:08 to push it to 4-1, and Mitchell Chaffee scored 26 seconds later at 19:34 for the 5-1 final.

"We played them pretty hard, they got a few bounces there at the end to get a couple of goals," Senators forward Drake Batherson said. "But I thought we played solid up and down the lineup. [Forsberg] played pretty good. It was a pretty solid game.

“We've won five in a row, including a big one in Nashville [on Monday]. If we can get a win in Florida on Saturday, that would be a good closeout before the break."

NOTES: Stutzle has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) during his seven-game streak. ... Kucherov extended his point streak to five games (two goals, four assists). ...Lightning forward Conor Sheary, called up Thursday from Syracuse of the American Hockey League, had one shot on goal in 11:18 of ice time.