Pinto nets tiebreaking goal late in 3rd to help Senators edge Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Shane Pinto scored his second goal of the night late in the third period to lift the Ottawa Senators to a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday in the opener for both clubs.

Dylan Cozens and Artem Zub also scored for the Senators, and Claude Giroux added an empty-netter. Brady Tkachuk had three assists.

Linus Ullmark stopped 21 shots for Ottawa.

Brayden Point had a goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, which fell to 21-10-2 in season openers. Nikita Kucherov scored twice and Oliver Bjorkstrand had a power-play goal.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, who played only two periods in the preseason, finished with 29 saves.

Jake Sanderson intercepted a pass at center ice and transitioned up ice quickly to take the puck to the net, where Pinto punched in a loose puck with 1:47 left to put the Senators ahead for good at 4-3.

The Lightning jumped on top early as Bjorkstrand, acquired from Seattle at the trade deadline last season, slid into the slot to receive a pass from Jake Guentzel and snap a shot past Ullmark with 14:25 left in the first period. Point made it 2-0 less than 90 seconds later, and Cozens answered with a power-play goal for Ottawa midway through the period.

Kucherov regained the two-goal advantage for Tampa Bay with 5:14 left in the first on the Lightning’s second power-play goal of the period.

Zub threw a puck toward net on the opening shift of the second that bounced off the post, then off Vasilevskiy 42 seconds into the period. Pinto converted a breakaway that tied the game with 4:51 left in the second.

Up next

Senators: At Florida on Saturday.

Lightning: Host New Jersey on Saturday.