KUCHEROV LIGHTS IT UP FOR THE BOLTS
Three second-period power play goals help Lightning to lopsided win over Sens
The Senators were their own worst enemies Monday night in the Sunshine State and they ended up getting burned.
Trying to complete a Florida sweep at the finish of an eight-day road trip, the Senators fell apart at the seams and allowed Nikita Kucherov to score a natural hattrick in the second period of an ugly 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Amalie Arena.
Kucherov’s goals came on the power play while he also had an assist for a four-point night while Brayden Point and Braydon Coburn also beat Ottawa goalie Mike Condon and Jonathan Drouin had three assists. Only Kyle Turris was able to beat Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
“You give up three power play goals to a team that has a good power play — you can’t be taking those penalties,” winger Mark Stone said. “You always want to be playing more consistent hockey. This was going to be a tough one to win tonight.
“We’re coming in off a backto-back and they’re a fresh team fighting for a playoff spot.”
Hours after Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion served notice earlier in the day he believes in this team by acquiring forward Alex Burrows from the Vancouver Canucks for a prospect to give the club depth, the Senators looked like a team that needs help with an effort that left a lot to be desired.
The power play went 1-for-5 for Ottawa.
“We had chances. Our power play was terrible, it’s been bad the last four or five games. It just hasn’t created us any momentum and hasn’t really given us much. We got one on the 5-on-3 but you’re supposed to score on those. All the other power plays just killed our momentum,” Stone said.
This game went sideways on the Senators in the second. The Bolts might be also-rans in the race for a playoff spot but they looked like a team trying desperately to get there with four unanswered goals in the second to take a 4-1 lead over the Senators into the third.
Kucherov completed his threegoal night with his third straight goal on the power play. Yes, it was one-timer from the circle that beat Condon high at 19:46 with Zack Smith in the box. This was ugly, folks because all were the result of poor discipline by the Senators.
Ottawa didn’t give Condon much help by playing with discipline problems in the second. Kucherov scored his second power play goal at 10:26 on a one-timer, you guessed it, from the circle, to give the Bolts a 3-1 lead at 10:26. That one came with blueliner Dion Phaneuf off for tripping.
The Senators didn’t get off to good start in the second with two goals in a span of 3:58. Kucherov scored on a one-timer on the power play with Tom Pyatt in the box. Condon had no chance to stop this blast and it may have deflected by him to give the Bolts a 2-1 lead.
The Bolts were able to get on the board quick. Point tied it up at 1:39 after a bad giveaway by Smith. He threw the puck into the circle and Point fired it home to tie it up 1-1. The Senators had completely dominated Tampa but couldn’t get the second goal to extend their lead.
“We lost a little bit of discipline there. It was something we had kept in our game plan going into the game and we didn’t really stick to it,” Borowiecki said. “It happens. A bit of adversity. We would have liked a different result on some of those (penalty kills).
“That’s the way game goes, you’ve got to learn to play through it.”
Coach Guy Boucher wanted to see a strong start and he got it. The Senators scored the opening goal for the 29th time this season, held a 1-0 lead and outshot the Bolts by a 15-8 count.
It helped that the Senators had a 5-on-3 for a span of 1:13 after Braydon Coburn high-stick centre Zack Smith. While Ottawa did a good job moving the puck, the Senators weren’t getting many shots through until Turris fired a one-timer by Vasilevskiy at 6:26 to open the scoring.
Not only was the 22nd goal of the season for Turris, he also record his 300th NHL point.
The Senators play to host the Colorado Avalanche Thursday to start a three-game homestand.