|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Thursday, Mar. 30 7:30pm ET
Sens miss golden shot at fifth place | |||||
|
| ||||||
|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators hope they learned something from their embarrassing loss to Tampa Bay. "It's a good learning situation from the standpoint that it was a lot like the playoffs ... there was a lot clutching, grabbing and things like that," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said after the Senators' 6-3 loss Thursday night. "The bottom line at this point in time is we've got to get ourselves ready for the playoffs." Zac Bierk made 33 saves and Vincent Lecavalier scored his team-high 23rd goal to help Tampa Bay snap a five-game losing streak and seven-game home slide. Chris Phillips, Sami Salo and Vaclav Prospal scored for the Senators, who remain one point behind Florida for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. "This is a big loss, and it's a game that hurt us," Ottawa left wing Rob Zamuner said. `It's not acceptable, but we have to learn from it. It's a bad loss." Bierk, recalled on an emergency basis from Detroit of the IHL on Wednesday to replace the injured Dan Cloutier and Rich Parent, stopped Petr Schastlivy's on a breakaway in the second period. "I thought we showed a lot of fire," Bierk said. "Everybody is working for jobs at this point and working to build momentum for the future." Lecavalier put the Lightning ahead 4-2 at 5:37 of the third period when he deflected a knee-high pass from Fredrik Modin past goalie Patrick Lalime. "The most important thing is we have not given up," Lecavalier said. Wayne Primeau scored on a breakaway with seven minutes left, and Jaroslav Svejkovsky, Marek Posmyk, Brian Holzinger and Todd Warriner also scored to help the Lightning. Posmyk's goal was his first in the NHL. Svejkovsky's rebound goal with nine seconds left in the second period gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead, just the 18th time the Lightning have led after 40 minutes. "I thought the goal by Svejkovsky turned the game around," Lightning coach Steve Ludzik said. Posmyk and Holzinger scored 21 seconds apart early in the second period as the Lightning took a 2-1 lead. Ottawa tied it at 2 on Salo's power-play goal in the second period. Phillips put the Senators up 1-0, scoring his first goal in 13 games midway through the first period. Prospal made it 5-3 with just under three minutes to play, and Warriner scored an empty-net goal for Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay was 0-for-5 on the power play, extending its scoreless streak to 35 chances. Ottawa has killed 24 straight short-handed situations. Tampa Bay defenseman Petr Svoboda left the game in the second period because of a lower abdominal strain. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Ottawa Clubhouse Tampa Bay Clubhouse Ottawa's leading goal-scorer McEachern out three weeks
RECAPS Pittsburgh 4 Washington 3
Tampa Bay 6 AUDIO/VIDEO   Vincent Lecavalier bats the puck out of the air to score.avi: 722 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||