The Backcheck: Lightning fight back but fall just short in Ottawa

One of the NHL’s most potent shorthanded combinations was mere inches away from tying Thursday’s Atlantic Division matchup for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Lightning forward Brandon Hagel earned a shorthanded breakaway six minutes into the third period, but Ottawa Senators goalie Linus Ullmark made the stop to maintain his team’s 2-1 lead.

Anthony Cirelli hit the crossbar on another shorthanded rush moments later but the puck flew out of play, and Ottawa never relinquished the lead to earn a 2-1 win at Canadian Tire Centre.

Tampa Bay is now 44-26-5 after the loss, one that came despite a strong push by the visitors.

“We put pucks around the crease and we tried to get the rebounds, but they were good,” Lightning forward Yanni Gourde said postgame. “They blocked a lot of shots as well. They did a lot of good things in front of their net, gotta give them credit.”

Thursday started with the Lightning earning numerous shots on goal in dangerous areas, including on a first-period power play. Ullmark was there to make the saves, keeping the visitors off the scoreboard.

Tampa Bay outshot the home team 13-8, but Ottawa took advantage of an odd-man rush for the early lead.

Ottawa forward Shane Pinto cracked the seal on a scoreless game with 6:35 left in the first period, accepting Ridly Greig’s drop pass as the trailing player on a 3-on-2 before scoring on his shot from the center hashmarks.

The Senators took advantage of a second-period power play to claim a 2-0 lead, this goal coming on Jake Sanderson’s shot from the top of the setup 5:17 into the middle frame.

Brandon Hagel halved the Lightning disadvantage just 1:43 after the Sanderson goal, crashing to the net and burying a loose puck after Gourde’s initial shot created a rebound.

The tally was Hagel’s 34th goal and 82nd point of the season. Tampa Bay didn’t wind up finding the game-tying goal, but multiple members of the Lightning locker room said postgame that they liked most of their effort.

“I think we had a plan and we stuck to it,” defenseman Darren Raddysh said. “I think that was two good hockey teams there. They’re fighting for the playoffs too. It was a good fought game all around, we just didn’t come out on top.”

A power-play chance for the Lightning with five minutes left in the game produced more chances for the Lightning, but Ullmark again denied the game-tying goal.

Gourde earned a quality chance near the Ottawa net with under three minutes remaining, and yet again Ullmark was there for the blocker save. The Lightning outshot Ottawa 11-3 over the final 20 minutes of hockey and 32-19 overall, but Ullmark stopped 31 of 32 Tampa Bay shots on goal.

“The goalie made the saves he had to make and they blocked the shots they had to block, and that was it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the game. “If you ask me, ‘Hey are you unhappy with my team tonight?’ No. I’m not. Sometimes you just don’t win those games, and we’ve won a lot of them, and tonight we didn’t.”

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 17 saves for Tampa Bay, which now turns its attention to the Buffalo Sabres.

The Lightning visit the Sabres (32-36-6) at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Linus Ullmark, OTT (31 saves, win)

2. Ridly Greig, OTT (2 assists)

3. Brandon Hagel, TBL (Goal)