Wiercioch’s blast keeps Sens alive

Ottawa downs Tampa Bay on last- second goal

Another game, another hero for the Ottawa Senators.

This time it was Patrick Wiercioch, who blasted a slapshot past Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop with 16.9 seconds remaining in overtime, keeping alive the Senators hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.

The 2- 1 victory allowed the Senators to stay three points behind the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins defeated the Red Wings 3- 2 Thursday. The Senators have five regular season games remaining, the Bruins have four left to play and the Red Wings have five to go.

Once again, Andrew Hammond picked up the victory in goal for the Senators, running his NHL record to 16- 1- 1. Before the game, Hammond won the Molson Cup award for most star selections during March, a day after winning the NHL’s first star honours for the month and being the Senators nominee for the Masterton Trophy.

It was a spirited, often times nasty contest, which had a playoff feel. After the Bruins rallied to defeat Detroit, the Senators desperately needed to keep pace.

Both Hammond and Bishop had strong games, with the Senators outshooting the Lightning 34- 29. Both netminders were sharp in extending the game into extra time.

The clubs headed into the third period deadlocked 1- 1 after Mark Stone and Jonathan Drouin exchanged first period goals.

The second period was scoreless, but spirited, ending with sparkplug centre Jean- Gabriel Pageau limping to the dressing room following a knee- on- knee hit from Lightning star captain Steven Stamkos.

It didn’t look good at the time, but Pageau returned for the third period, playing on the energy line alongside Curtis Lazar and Erik Condra.

One of the major storylines of the opening two periods was the fact the Senators couldn’t take advantage of power play opportunities.

Through two periods, they were 0- for- 4 and on two of those advantages, they failed to get a shot against Bishop.

Bishop, who came into the game with a 6- 0- 2 record against his former Senators teammates, stood tall when the Senators pressured midway through the period, after Cameron reunited Mike Hoffman on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Bobby Ryan.

Hammond made some sharp stops of his own, including a trapper save off Stamkos on an oddman rush.

The Senators had great early jump to start the game, but Hammond made the game’s first big stop, robbing Nikita Kucherov four minutes in.

A minute later, Stone pounced on a Bishop rebound to score his 20th of the season.

The Lightning found their game in the latter part of the first period and tied the game on Drouin’s power play goal with 3: 07 left.