For the second time in a three-night span, the Ottawa Senators met the Tampa Bay Lightning in warm and sunny Tampa, Florida. On Tuesday night, the Senators fell 4-3 to the Lightning.
The first two games between the Senators and Lightning this season were decided by one goal, but the third meeting was anything but another one goal game, and was ugly for the Senators.
The Lightning crushed the Senators 5-1 at Amalie Arena to drop the Senators to 29-22-4 on the season. With the loss, the Lightning jumped the Senators for the third spot in the Atlantic Division.
The Senators are now the first Wild Card seed in the Eastern Conference, but the Lightning gained four huge points on the Senators in the standings, and also have two games in hand on the Senators.
Not much positive came out of the second loss against the Lightning for the Senators other than Michael Amadio scoring a goal in back-to-back games against the Lightning. Anton Forsberg would get the start in goal and allowed in four goals on 30 shots on goal.
The game was a stalemate through two periods as the Lightning led 2-1 after 40 minutes. In the final five minutes, the Lightning offense surged. In a 3:50 span, the Lightning finished the game with scoring three goals. One of the goals scored was 26 second later after the Lightning scored an empty-net goal to add more salt to the wound by Mitchell Chaffee.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves to earn the win and recorded the secondary assist on Brandon Hagel's goal in the second period, which turned out to be the game-winning goal.
The Senators will play their final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off tomorrow night when they take on the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. ET at Amerant Bank Arena. The Senators won the first meeting against the Panthers 3-1 in the season opener on Oct. 10.