Tuesday, December 17, 2019 07:00 PM (ET)

Cirelli fires Lightning past Senators in OT

Field Level Media
Dec 17, 2019

Anthony Cirelli scored on a breakaway with 19 seconds remaining in overtime to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

With the five-minute session winding down, the speedy Cirelli stole the puck from Ottawa's Thomas Chabot in the defensive end, raced past Nick Paul and shoveled in his seventh tally for the Lightning, who improved to 3-3 in overtime.

Brayden Point notched a goal and an assist, and Nikita Kucherov and Cedric Paquette netted goals for Tampa Bay, which started a stretch of four games in seven days.

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded 25 saves, including a breakaway by Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the first minute of overtime, to move to 5-2-0 in his last seven starts.

Tyler Johnson (lower body) returned to the home side's lineup after a four-game absence.

Ottawa's Anthony Duclair notched his club-best 19th goal, and Mark Borowiecki and Connor Brown also scored. Chris Tierney contributed two assists in his 400th career game.

The Senators started backup goalie Marcus Hogberg, who appeared in just his third game this season, and the Swedish backstop was outstanding in stopping 36 shots.

Kucherov took a hard shot to the right skate Saturday against the Washington Capitals and left midway through the Lightning's 5-2 loss, and the reigning league MVP was a game-time decision in his club's second meeting with the Senators.

However, he slotted onto the top line and scored his 11th goal at 7:27 of the first period on a misplayed clearing attempt that he intercepted above the high slot.

The Senators, who were drubbed 6-1 by the Florida Panthers on Monday, tied it when gritty defenseman Borowiecki fired in a long shot at 11:05 of the first for his third goal.

The Lightning's third line tallied when Paquette finished a pass into the low slot by Yanni Gourde for his fourth at 17:22 for a 2-1 advantage.

Nine seconds after Tampa Bay killed off the game's first penalty, Point whipped in his 13th marker at 3:32 of the second period, but Brown made it 3-2 just 29 seconds later with his sixth.

Kucherov slipped up by trying a fancy move and having Duclair strip the puck from him. Duclair then outraced the winger and beat Vasilevskiy one-on-one to tie it 3-3 at 15:46 of the middle period.

Tampa Bay killed off a four-minute double-minor penalty by Steven Stamkos, who clipped Paul with a high stick at 9:51 of the third, in a scoreless stanza.

--Field Level Media

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