Shane Pinto’s second goal, a rebound, go-ahead score with 1:47 remaining, lifted the Ottawa Senators to a season-opening 5-4 victory over the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
Late in the knotted-up contest, Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson drove the net on a quick rush, putting a shot on Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (29 saves). Pinto, who also had an assist, pounced on the puck in the blue paint for the tie-breaking tally.
Claude Giroux added an empty-net goal as the Senators rallied twice from two-goal deficits in the win.
Defenseman Artem Zub had a goal and two assists, Dylan Cozens scored and Brady Tkachuk added three helpers while Sanderson had two. Linus Ullmark stopped 21 shots for the visitors.
Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, Nikita Kucherov scored twice, and Oliver Bjorkstrand added one. Darren Raddysh, Victor Hedman and Jake Guentzel each had two assists.
In the first period with Cozens off for holding, Bjorkstrand scored at 5:35 after Guentzel sent a feed over for a tally. Point, who earned the secondary assist on the first score, buried a one-timer from the right dot off Guentzel’s pass just 85 seconds later.
However, Cozens atoned for the earlier infraction by connecting on a blast from above the right circle at 10:18. The power play marker came after Brandon Hagel was called for tripping.
On the home side’s second power play, the fireworks continued when Kucherov deked his way to the left of Ottawa’s Nick Jensen and ripped his first goal at 14:46 for a 3-1 lead.
Just 42 seconds into the second period, Zub scored his first goal since last January by lofting a seemingly harmless long shot that Vasilevskiy failed to see to make it a one-goal game.
The Senators continued to control the flow of play in the middle frame and tied it 3-all at 4:51 when Zub zipped a sharp stretch pass that Pinto snared and beat Vasilevskiy between the pads.
The Lightning went the rest of the second and deep into the third, nearly 19 minutes, without a shot on Ullmark before Ottawa’s late push.
Kucherov finalized the scoring, putting home a wrist shot with 14 seconds left, but Giroux won the center-ice face-off to seal the victory.
