OTTAWA - Martin St. Louis scored a tiebreaking goal in the third period as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Saturday night.
Adam Hall also scored for the Lightning while Dwayne Roloson made 31 saves.
Zack Smith scored the lone goal for the Senators and Brian Elliott faced 27 shots.
The Senators, coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Friday night, got off to a slow start as they were being outshot 7-1 at the halfway mark of the first period.
Despite the Senators' struggles, their penalty kill was solid against the Lightning late in the first after Jarkko Ruutu took two minor penalties on the same shift. Elliott made a number of big saves, including one on Steven Stamkos.
Roloson, acquired by the Lightning on Jan. 1, was solid in the second period. He made saves on Milan Michalek and Nick Foligno, but he was unable to stop Smith.
The Senators took a 1-0 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the second period as Jesse Winchester, on a 2-on-1, fed Smith a perfect pass who beat Roloson low stick side.
Tampa's Dominic Moore took advantage of a brutal giveaway by Alex Kovalev just inside Ottawa's blue-line in the opening minutes of the third. Moore carried the puck just to the right of Elliott, dropped it back to Hall, who was left all alone, and had a wide open left side to tie the game.
The Lightning took the lead at the five-minute mark as St. Louis scored his 18th of the season. On the same play Mike Fisher was hurt blocking a shot and left the game. Fisher returned for one shift, but was then done for the night.
The Senators made a mad scramble to tie the game in the dying seconds of the game, but couldn't force an overtime.
Notes: The Senators were without G Pascal Leclaire (lower body, day-to-day), C Jason Spezza (shoulder, indefinite). ... D Matt Carkner was a healthy scratch for the Senators. ... The Lightning were without G Mike Smith (knee, indefinite), C Mattias Ritola (ear).
