Lightning hold off Senators, extend Atlantic lead

OTTAWA-- Nikita Kucherov had two assists for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

Kucherov leads the NHL with 80 points, seven more than Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau.
Vladislav Namestnikov scored and had an assist, Victor Hedman scored, and Louis Domingue made 33 saves for the Lightning, who are 10-5-0 in their past 15 games. Tampa Bay (41-17-3) leads the Boston Bruins by three points for first place in the Atlantic Division.
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Senators highlights]
"Our third period was really disappointing, the way we played," Hedman said. "We played scared out there and that's not a recipe for success.
"The first 40 minutes was pretty good and that won us the game, and Louis played really well in the third and got us the win."
Ryan Dzingel, Derick Brassard and Mark Borowiecki scored, and Craig Anderson made 20 saves for the Senators (21-29-10), who lost 3-2 at the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.

"We always talk about the back to backs, but to be fair to the players it was a three in four," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "Those are tough. Three in four with a back to back being on the road last night, coming home late."
Tyler Johnson gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 9:31 of the first period when his long-range wrist shot beat Anderson on the blocker side. The Lightning took a 2-1 Lead when Hedman deked around two Senators and scored with a snap shot at 16:26.

"[Hedman and Kucherov] played a few shifts together tonight and put the puck in the net," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "The way we worked our lines, we had 11 forwards tonight, so we're moving guys around a little bit, but when they were, offensively anyway, they did some good things."
Borowiecki scored at 8:11 of the third period to make 4-2. Brassard made it 4-3 on the power play with 2:16 left in the third period when he one-timed a pass from Mark Stone off the post. Stone, playing his 300th NHL game, had two assists.
Namestnikov made it 3-1 when he received a pass from Kucherov at the Senators blue line, went in on a breakaway and scored at 3:37 of the second period. Brayden Point scored with 0.8 seconds left in the period to make it 4-1, one-timing a pass from Yanni Gourde.
Dzingel tied it 1-1 at 14:54 of the first period when he took a pass from Stone outside the crease and deked Domingue.

Goal of the game

Namestnikov's goal at 3:37 of the second period.

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Save of the game

Domingue's save on Dzingel at 14:26 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Hedman's goal at 16:26 of the first period.

They said it

"We're just at that time of the year, especially when the teams are right on our heels, that we've got to be a little bit more responsible. For a large part of the year, we were doing that. For whatever reason, we've taken our foot off the gas in that regard." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"There's definitely a little bit of anxiety in here. I think you'd be foolish to say that it's not playing a bit of a role. I've been here, my fourth year now, and this is the most rumors I've seen for a lot of core guys here." -- Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki on the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline
"There's that feeling after a game where you're supposed to be happy with how you played as a group. And I think we're missing that tonight, which is unfortunate." -- Lightning goalie Louis Domingue

Need to know

Kucherov has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in an eight-game point streak. ... The Senators had won five in a row at home.

What's next

Lightning: At the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CITY, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV)
Senators: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (2 p.m. ET; NHLN, TVAS, TSN5, NBCSP+, NHL.TV)