Tkachuk’s hat trick lifts Senators past Lightning
Senators 4, Lightning 0: Brady Tkachuk scored his first career hat trick to lead the Ottawa Senators to a victory over Tampa Bay on Saturday, snapping the Lightning’s five-game winning streak.
Josh Norris also scored for the Senators (8-16-1) and Anton Forsberg made 24 saves for his first career shutout. Forsberg is riding a personal four-game win streak.
Brian Elliott stopped 20 shots for the Lightning (17-6-4), who were shut out for the first time this season. They were looking to finish a road trip of five or more games with a perfect record for the first time in franchise history.
The Senators opened the scoring midway through the first period, with Norris notching his 12th goal of the season on a one-timer off a great pass from Drake Batherson.
A pair of power-play goals in the second period by Tkachuk stretched the lead to 3-0. Elliott had come up with a couple of big saves, but was unable to stop Tkachuk at 3:00. The goal was Tkachuk’s first power-play point of the season.
Two minutes later, Tkachuk scored again, deflecting in a Thomas Chabot point shot.
Tkachuk capped his afternoon with an empty-net goal with just over three minutes remaining in the third period.
The two teams meet again Thursday in Tampa with the season series tied 1-1.
Blues 4, Canadiens 1: Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves and Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and assist, leading the host Blues over the slumping Canadiens.
Ivan Barbashev, Dakota Joshua and Torey Krug also scored for St. Louis.
The Blues have won seven straight home games, their longest streak since capturing nine in a row from Dec. 12, 2019-Jan. 13, 2020.
Lindgren, making his second start of the season, replaced Jordan Binnington, who remains in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.
Alexander Romanov scored for Montreal, ending the Canadiens’ scoring drought of 134:49. Montreal has lost six in a row. Jake Allen, who spent seven seasons in St. Louis, made 33 saves in his seventh straight start for the Canadiens.
Vladimir Tarasenko added two assists for the Blues, who have picked up points in seven of their last eight games.
Penguins 1, Ducks 0: Casey DeSmith stopped all 33 shots he faced, and Brock McGinn gave the host Penguins the only goal they needed.
It was DeSmith’s seventh career shutout and first of the season, and his second straight win in his sixth appearance. McGinn scored his seventh of the season on Pittsburgh’s first shot of the game, 5:12 into the first period. He beat Ducks goalie John Gibson with a onetimer from the right faceoff dot off the rush, set up by Zach Aston-Reese with a backhand pass to the blueline.
Sidney Crosby’s seven-game point streak ended, but Pittsburgh won its fourth straight game and ninth in 12 games.