Lightning 4, Senators 1
OTTAWA -- Ben Bishop made 33 saves to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to its eighth consecutive victory, a 4-1 decision over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre.
The victory moved Tampa Bay (38-22-4) into a tie with the Florida Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Bishop, who played 23 games for the Senators between 2011-2013, improved his record to 9-0-3 against his former team.
Cedric Paquette, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos had the Lightning's goals, while Marc Methot replied for the Senators.
The Senators played most of the game with five defensemen after Mark Borowiecki left with a right knee injury after his first shift.
Paquette opened the scoring at 4:14 of the second period when a Senators breakdown in front of the net left him alone to backhand a shot by Hammond's stick side.
It was the first goal surrendered by Hammond since taking over for the injured Craig Anderson on Tuesday, stopping his string of saves at 29.
The Lightning went up 2-0 at on Palat's eighth of the season at 18:33 of the second period. Newly signed Senator Scott Gomez fumbled the puck at the Tampa Bay blue line, starting a rush that saw Tyler Johnson foiled on a wraparound attempt. Palat poked the puck in before Hammond could cover it up.
The Senators finally beat Bishop at 5:24 of the third period. Zack Smith set up the goal from the right wing boards, finding Methot with a pass that the defenseman accepted before wristing a shot past the goalie's glove hand.
The goal was Methot's first in 31 games.
Kucherov capitalized for his 25th of the season when a defensive-zone pass by Ottawa's Dion Phaneuf to Jean-Gabriel Pageau failed to connect, and Stamkos iced the victory with an empty-netter in the last minute.
Senators goalie Andrew Hammond made 25 saves.
NOTES: Senators C Scott Gomez debuted with his seventh NHL team and started the game between rookie LW Ryan Dzingel and struggling RW Alex Chiasson. The game was the 1,067th of Gomez's career. ... To make room for Gomez, Senators LW Matt Puempel was scratched. ... Senators G Chris Driedger was recalled from Binghamton of the AHL and served as backup to G Andrew Hammond while G Craig Anderson missed his first game with a lower-body injury. ... Senators D Patrick Wiercioch was scratched for the fifth consecutive game. ... Lightning D Andrej Sustr missed the game with an undisclosed injury that isn't expected to keep him out long. ... Lightning W Erik Condra, a former Senator, returned to the lineup after being scratched the previous three games. ... Lightning C Jonathan Marchessault was scratched for the second game in a row.