Like I said yesterday, the sophomore line of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat has been pretty spectacular this season, and they were nothing short of that on Sunday night. Kucherov set up Johnson for 2 wide open nets with pinpoint passes and that was essentially the difference in the game as the Lightning beat the Senators 4-2.
Kyle Turris opened the scoring just over 30 seconds int the game, and then set up Mark Stone to put the Senators ahead 2-1, but that was all the Sens could muster offensively.
Victor Hedman stepped into a rebound and blasted it past Robin Lehner for the 1-1 goal, and after Johnson had tied the game at 2, Steven Stamkos did a pretty good imitation of Gustav Nyquist in the offensive zone and buried what turned out to be the game winner during an eventful second period.
Johnson's insurance marker was the only goal of the third, a period where Ottawa put up just 6 shots on goal.
Tampa out-attempted the Senators 60-42, and outshot them 30-22. The loss stops the Senators winning streak at a modest 2 games, and keeps Ottawa 6 points back of the falling Maple Leafs, who currently occupy the final playoff spot.
They were unable to make up ground on those teams they are chasing. As the mid-way point of the season quickly approaches (3 games away) it is looking more and more doubtful by the night that Ottawa will be able to put together the string of success that will be required to get them into a playoff spot.
The Sens embark on a 4 game road trip through 4 currrent non-playoff cities (Philadelphia, Denver, Phoenix and Dallas), and if they hope to have a sniff of post-season action, you have to think they need to come home with at least 7 if not all 8 points available to them on this trip.
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Meanwhile, in more positive news, Curtis Lazar and the rest of Team Canada made it interesting but finally pulled away and downed Slovakia 5-1 in the semi-final of the World Juniors.
Lazar and Connor McDavid combined with Nic Petan to be the top line for the Canadians, with Petan's hat trick leading the way.
They will face Russia in tonight's gold medal game. As for Lazar, he leads the team (and tied for the tournament lead) in goals with 5 in 6 games, which is exactly what the Senators were hoping for when they released him to play for his country.
One more game, against a team that has knocked off Canada in the medal round of each of the last 4 tournaments, for Lazar and his teammates to cement a legacy of winning gold on home ice and breaking a 5 year gold-less drought.