THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Jason Spezza’s flubbed deke was enough to complete the Ottawa Senators’ comeback Saturday.
Spezza had the puck roll off his stick in front of Dwayne Roloson at 3:28 of overtime but it still found its way past the Tampa Bay netminder as the Senators fought back to defeat the Lightning 3-2.
The Ottawa centre took a pretty feed from Erik Karlsson on an odd-man rush but lost control as he went to his backhand.
"I had lots of chances tonight and I finally got one on a mistake," Spezza said. "I was stickhandling and tried to pull it to my backhand, lost the puck and it went five-hole. Every once in a while you get rewarded. Sometimes that’s what you need."
Ryan Shannon and Nick Foligno had the other goals for Ottawa (27-36-9), while Karlsson picked up two assists. Curtis McElhinney made 35 saves for the Senators.
Vincent Lecavalier and Dana Tyrell replied for Tampa Bay (39-22-11). Roloson finished with 31 stops.
The Lightning led 2-0 midway through the third when the Senators finally got on the board.
With Ottawa short-handed, Shannon took a feed from Erik Condra and moved in to beat Roloson on a nice deke at 12:27.
"Roloson made a great save on me in the second period. Chris Neil found me in the slot and he made a great two-pad stack. I thought that was going to go in so it has a way of evening out," Shannon said.
Foligno then tied the game at 16:05 when he redirected a shot by Zack Smith past Roloson from in close, but it was the short-handed goal that had Lightning coach Guy Boucher incensed.
"It’s frustrating because we only gave them 12 shots in the first two periods. We had double the shots and we had total control of the game," Boucher said. "The only thing I said on that power play was we can’t get caught and that’s exactly what happened. It’s very frustrating when you keep one defenceman up there and you get caught.
"You want to blame yourself as a coach but when we tell the players that what we want to watch out for is them taking off and our guy’s not even aware of it … when you make a play like that you don’t deserve to win."
Tyrell gave Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead at 7:42 of the second. As several players crashed the net with McElhinney out of position, the Lightning forward got his stick through several legs to direct the puck across the goal-line.
Lecavalier opened the scoring at 6:32 of the first, beating McElhinney on a breakaway.
The Senators didn’t manage a shot until there were less than five minutes to go in the first. Ottawa finished the period with three shots on goal and had just 12 through two periods.
The win takes the Senators further out of the NHL cellar and away from the best odds for the No. 1 overall draft pick, but that is of absolutely no concern to the players.
"We don’t really know what’s going to happen over the summer with movement, we can just go out there and do our best individually and collectively as a team," Shannon said.
"It’s not in us to just kind of lay down and die for a draft pick. It’s important for us to continue to play well."
Ottawa has now won two straight and five of its past seven.
Notes: The Senators had scored power-play goals in five straight games prior to going 0-for-2 against the Lightning. … Ottawa has killed off 60 of its last 63 penalties. … Following Saturday’s crowd of 18,813 at Scotiabank Place, the Senators are averaging 18,317 this season, including 14 sellouts through 37 games. … Lightning forward Martin St. Louis is the only player in the league to register at least 85 points and 55 blocked shots this season. … Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos leads the NHL in road goals with 23.
