Lightning lose at Ottawa

It wasn't the Lightning's night Thursday, as the Ottawa Senators beat Tampa Bay 7-1, in front of 17,732 at Scotiabank Place.

The Sens took control with two goals in the first period. Alexei Kovalev opened the scoring at 4:25 of the first, tipping a Daniel Alfredsson shot into the net. After that, Milan Michalek took over. Acquired from San Jose in an off-season deal for Dany Heatley, he had just one point heading into Thursday's game. Unfortunately, the Lightning caught him on the night of his coming out party. Michalek scored two shorthanded goals, the first coming at 10:22 of the opening period, giving Ottawa a 2-0 lead after one.

Michalek scored his second shortie at 5:41 of the second and the Senators were off to the races with a 3-0 lead. It was 4-0 when Alexandre Piccard scored at 6:15, then 5-0 on a Nick Foligno goal at 10:15. Ryan Malone's 6th goal of the season broke the shut out bid at 14:26, leaving Tampa Bay down 5-1 after 40 minutes.

Ottawa sealed the deal with two third period goals. Michalek rounded out his hat trick with a power play goal at 11:39 to make it 6-1, then a Jarkko Ruuto goal at 17:01 finished the scored, as the Sens rolled to the 7-1 win.

Ottawa outshot the Lightning 35-17. Pascal Leclaire made 16 saves for the Senators, Mike Smith 29 for Tampa Bay. Ottawa went 1-for-6 on the power play. The Lightning were 0-for-6 with the man advantage and allowed 2 shorthanded goals.

Tampa Bay had their two-game win streak snapped and slipped to second in the Southeast Division wth a 2-2-2 record for 6 points, two points behind division leading Washington, who beat San Jose 4-1 last night. The Senators improved to 4-2-0 for 8 points, good for first in the Northeast.

The Lightning continue their two-game road swing in Pittsburgh Saturday night, against the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins. Face-off is set for 7:30p.m. EDT. 620 WDAE has the radio broadcast, Sun Sports the telecast. Tampa Bay returns home to meet the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, October 22nd. Face-off at the St. Pete Times Forum on Thursday is 7:30p.m. EDT. Ottawa's next action is at Montreal this Saturday at 7:00p.m. EDT.