The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—For the first time in a long time, the Ottawa Senators are feeling good about themselves.
The Senators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 last night, with Mark Stone leading the way with two goals and an assist.
Stone now has five goals and three assists in his past four games after having gone eight-straight without a point.
“Once you get that little confidence, that little swagger back, you feel comfortable every night,” noted Stone.
“I’m coming into games expecting to score.”
The Senators (25-23-6) won back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 18 and handed the Lightning (29-19-4) just their second loss in its last 12 games.
Tampa coach Jon Cooper didn’t make any excuses for his team’s lacklustre performance.
“We’ve been on a pretty good run here of the last month-and-a-half, two months and it came to a crashing halt,” he remarked.
The Senators have been dealing with a fragile confidence of late and coach Dave Cameron wants the team builds off these two wins.
“We’ve been in this position before where we’ve played pretty good in back-to-back games; we’ve done it before,” he noted.
“But now you’re at the point in your schedule and in the season where there’s no margin for error here,” Cameron stressed.
Meanwhile, with the Lightning back in action tonight against Montreal, Cooper said things will need to be rectified immediately.
“This has to be a page-turner because now we’ve got Montreal, who’s won a couple and feeling good about themselves and we’re not,” he warned.
“You’re not always encouraged about playing back-to-back, but I’m glad we get to jump right back at it [Tuesday] night.”
Elsewhere in the NHL, Pittsburgh dumped Anaheim 6-2, the N.Y. Rangers edged New Jersey 2-1, and Detroit blanked Florida 3-0.
