Lightning claw back to beat Senators, extend point streak to 7 games

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 28, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — A rare early-afternoon puck drop at Benchmark International Arena brought an all-too-familiar slow start from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

They fell behind just 18 seconds into the game and dropped into a two-goal hole 4:25 in, forcing Tampa Bay to play catch up against one of the league’s hottest teams.

But the afternoon brought another Lightning comeback, and a win after defensemen Emil Lilleberg slipped through the Ottawa defense, jumping in on the rush for his third goal of the season, giving the Lightning a 3-2 lead at the 8:51 mark of the third period. The Lightning won 4-2.

The Lightning (45-21-6, 96 points) tied (at least briefly) Buffalo for the most points in the Atlantic Division — the Sabres hosted Seattle later Saturday — and took a six-point lead over Montreal for second place; the Canadiens play Saturday night in Nashville, Tenn.

The Lightning extended their point streak to seven games, going 5-0-2 over that span.

Brandon Hagel began the comeback with the Lightning’s first goal and then found Lilleberg in the third period, drawing two Senators his way as he reached the top of the right circle. Lilleberg was uncovered through the slot, and the 6-foot-3 defenseman showed some nimble hands lifting a backhand shot past Ottawa goaltender James Reimer on his blocker side.

For Lilleberg, who is still wearing a cage to protect his face after fracturing his upper jaw earlier this month, it was his first goal since Nov. 15.

“I think that might be glued on,” Hagel said of Lilleberg getting his first career three-point game with a cage on. “That builds a lot of confidence for a player. No one wants to be injured. No one wants to have to sit out, not go on the road with guys. We’re all warriors. We all want to win. We all want to play. And he’s done a heck of a job for us this year.”

Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous set up Tampa Bay’s first goal and then tied the score on his fifth goal of the season — a pair of scores that came two minutes, 26 seconds apart in the second period.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to make the playoffs right now, so there’s no time for sit back,” Hagel said. “Maybe (there’s) a little bit just at the start of the game, and we have to go down for some reason right now to get that emotion. But listen, it’s a lot of hockey, a lot of stuff going on, but I love the fight, but we’re gonna put 60 minutes together. We have emotion in this dressing room. That’s how we’re built. We’ve been doing it all year.”

The Lightning were without leading scorer Nikita Kucherov and center Nick Paul; both were absent due to illness. Captain Victor Hedman, on a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons, missed his fifth straight game.

The Lightning hadn’t faced Ottawa (38-25-10) since the first game of the regular season Oct. 9 in Tampa; they will face them twice in their final 11 games.

The Senators came to town having charged their way into the playoff picture, one point out of a postseason spot after an overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday. Ottawa had just three regulation losses over their previous 18 games.

Even though Ottawa dominated the first few minutes of Saturday’s game, the Lightning had plenty of possession time in the offensive zone. Tampa Bay had 29 shot attempts in the first period, but just eight were on goal — 12 of them blocked and nine others missing the net.

Dylan Cozens scored on the first shift of the game on a shot that Andrei Vasilevsky would like to have back as the puck hit off his right pad, leaked under it and through. Ottawa then took a 2-0 lead on a bad bounce when Darren Raddysh slid in front of Vasilevskiy to block Nick Cousins’ rebound, but the puck bounced out to the opposite post where Ottawa defenseman Jordan Spence had an open net with Vasilevskiy out of position.

After Lilleberg gave the Lightning the lead, Jake Guentzel padded it with a breakaway goal with 2:12 remaining in the third. Lilleberg recorded the secondary assist on the goal.

Vasilevskiy stopped 26 of 28 shots, extending his record to 5-0-1 in his last six games. He has held opponents to two or fewer goals in four of those six.

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