Sunday, 4 a.m.
Will this be remembered as the two weeks that saved the season for the Tampa Bay Lightning?
Tyler Johnson scored on a nice pass from Victor Hedman to score the winning goal with 90 seconds to play. Alex Killorn added an empty netter with seven seconds to play.
Perhaps. The Lightning won its sixth straight game Saturday night, coming from a deficit to win 5-3 over the Ottawa Senators. The win allowed the Bolts to reach 50 points in 40 games.
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"We were pretty lethargic the first two periods," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "It was a little deflating to get that goal scored on us (the one that gave Ottawa a 3-2 lead) with eight seconds left. We weren’t getting momentum from anywhere tonight, not even the power play. We needed to regroup.
The Bolts outscored Ottawa 3-0 in the third. In their six-game winning streak, Tampa Bay has a plus eight in the third periods.
"You’re walking (into the dressing room) a little pissed off that they scored," Cooper said. But it was probably the best thing for us. Easy to say now, but it adjusted our psyche a little bit and we had a pretty good third."
On a freakish play with 69 seconds left, Colin White scored a fourth goal for the Senators to apparently tie the game, but the goal was disallowed. White head-butted the puck into the net.
"It's kind of like kicking," Cooper said. "There’s a reason that kicking is not the game and there ’s a reason head butting isn’t in the game. Now you’re going to be directing your head at pucks. That was a unique situation. Tt was like slow motion the whole time. It’s an instinctive move -- it was a pretty cool play the kid made. Even if we did that. it’s not something you want is guys charging with their heads."
Johnson has two goals in his last three games.
"Johnny's a good little player," Cooper said. "He's been doing that for us for a long time. He’s a guy who has had to play center and the wing. He's a team player and one of those kids who says 'put me in and tell me where to go.' He’s scored some big goals for us in his career and that was just another one."
The Lightning flew overnight to Carolina to face the Panthers in a 5 p.m. game today.