Well, it had to end sometime. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s four-game winning streak came to a screeching halt Thursday night in a gritty 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. This wasn’t just any loss, though. It was a game full of “what ifs” and missed opportunities as Tampa looked to lock in a playoff berth but came up short in the finishing department.
The Bolts opened with a ton of energy, pressing high and disrupting Ottawa’s breakouts. But despite that early push, Tampa couldn’t land the first punch. Instead, it was Ottawa’s Shane Pinto who broke through at 13:45 in the first, snapping one past Andrei Vasilevskiy after a drop pass from Ridly Greig. For all the good defending Tampa did, a few miscues and a failure to capitalize on their own chances left them trailing.
“You can’t win games on almosts,” Nick Paul said postgame, nodding to a frustrating night where Tampa was inches away from taking control.
The Senators made it 2-0 early in the second. Jake Sanderson took a power-play feed from Tim Stutzle and lasered a shot through traffic, beating Vasilevskiy on the blocker side. The Bolts were on their heels for about five minutes, skating like a team unsure if they remembered how to climb back.
Enter Brandon Hagel. The winger, who’s been doing it all for Tampa this season, cut the deficit in half with a signature crash-the-net goal off a Yanni Gourde rebound just two minutes later. It was pure Hagel grit, the kind of play that sparks a team. Unfortunately, that fire didn’t translate into more scoring for Tampa.
Ottawa rode the unreal play of Linus Ullmark the rest of the way. The guy was locked in, stopping 31 shots, including a short-handed breakaway by Hagel and a 2-on-1 blast from Anthony Cirelli in the third. Every time the Bolts knocked, Ullmark shut the door, leaving Tampa one goal short.
The loss stings not just because the Lightning were the better team for stretches of this game, but because the Senators essentially parked the bus in the third, content to defend their lead. Tampa poured on nine shot attempts in the final period but couldn’t find the equalizer.
Now sitting three points behind Toronto in the division race, Tampa has no time to dwell. Playoff hockey demands resilience, and Buffalo awaits Saturday. The Bolts know what’s at stake. The question is, who’s ready to step up next?
