The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to extend their win streak to four games when they open a three-game road trip in Ottawa against the Senators on Saturday afternoon.
The Lightning opened the season with a 4-1 win at Carolina and picked up a 4-1 victory over Vancouver on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Tampa Bay rallied to edge the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 to conclude a brief two-game home stand.
Nikita Kucherov scored twice, including the game-winner with 55 seconds remaining in the third period. Brandon Hagel and J.J. Moser also scored for the Lightning, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for his third win of the season.
“First of all, it was two very good hockey teams playing a game, but I thought we started to push in the second period, and we pushed in the third,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “But the big difference between tonight and our previous two games is we really managed the puck.”
Kucherov has six goals this season, tying Chris Kontos’ mark for the most through the Lightning’s first three games of a season.
Captain Victor Hedman has four assists through the first three games.
Vasilevskiy is 3-0-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage this season. He is 10-6-0 with a 3.07 GAA and an .895 save percentage in 16 career games against Ottawa.
The Senators took three of four meetings between the two teams last season.
Ottawa enters Saturday’s matinee following a 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. Brady Tkachuk scored the lone goal for the Senators with 65 seconds remaining to break up Jacob Markstrom’s shutout bid and Anton Forsberg made 32 saves.
“I thought we had a lot of the game that I liked, but I thought there were a few moments where we got away from our game, and they stuck with their game a little longer,” said Senators coach Travis Green. “There’s always momentum back and forth — one team is going to create some chances, one’s not. It’s a fine line between winning and losing in the league, especially when two good teams are playing.”
Defenseman Artem Zub missed the game against the Devils with a concussion and will be sidelined for at least a week.
Saturday concludes a three-game homestand for the Senators. Ottawa is 2-1-0 on home ice this season with wins over Florida and Los Angeles.
Center Tim Stutzle has a team-leading three goals this season while Tkachuk has five assists and six points in four games.
Goaltender Linus Ullmark is 1-1-0 with a 2.58 GAA and a .914 save percentage this season. He is 5-7-1 with a 2.92 GAA and a .903 save percentage in 13 career appearances against the Lightning.
Saturday is the first of four meetings between the Atlantic Division rivals. Ottawa travels to Tampa for games on Feb. 4 and Feb. 6 before the teams conclude the season series April 3 in Ottawa.
–Field Level Media
