It was a rapid change of attack and some quick goals that turned the game around for the Ottawa Senators, as the Sens capitalized on Tampa Bay Lightning turnovers to take a valuable two points away in the last second of play.
Ottawa came back to defeat the Lightning 4-3 on Tuesday night, frustrating Lightning head coach John Tortorella who had coached a pretty impressive road game for most of the night.
Tampa controlled a good portion of the play and held the Sens in check for most of the game, but a late goal in the second period set the stage for the Sens rally and a flurry of activity with fifteen seconds to go in the Tampa end of the rink sealed the night for the Sens.
With only seven seconds to go in the game, Captain Daniel Alfredsson was left alone in front of the Tampa net and had no problems directing a Jason Spezza pass in behind Tampa Goaltender John Grahame. It wasn’t a fair ending for the Lightning who seemed to find their style in the first two periods, but in the end it was probably much of the same story that Tortorella has been watching most of the season.
His team can’t seem to finish things off when they most need to kick it into a final gear.
For Ottawa the win was an important addition to the point’s totals, keeping them ahead of the surging Buffalo Sabres and close to the conference topping Carolina Hurricanes. Most importantly it was a solid come from behind effort for Bryan Murray’s team, who refused to be chased out of their own rink and found the missing connections later on in the game that changed the flow of the play. It also heralded the successful reunion of the Sens big line, a move which paid off quite nicely in this one.
At a time of the year when two points can make the difference between a good placing and a challenging one, the Sens kept the pace up with their nearest rivals, a situation that will no doubt have to continue right down to the final weekend of the regular season.
No comments:
Post a Comment