Tarasenko gets 1st goal for Senators in win against Lightning

Jeannot tied it 2-2 at 13:00, shooting into an open net off Michael Eyssimont’s redirection.

Mathieu Joseph again answered for Ottawa to make it 3-2 at 19:01, using a curl-and-drag move to set up a wrist shot from the left slot beat Tomkins over his glove.

Tkachuk extended the lead to 4-2 at 12:53 of the third period when he beat Raddysh wide on a rush before sliding the puck five-hole.

“I think he understands winning hockey,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said of Tkachuk. “But there’s lots of guys in there that are helping him.”

Stutzle scored into an empty net for the 5-2 final at 17:17.

“We’ve been beaten up a lot as a group,” Smith said. “As young guys, they were developing and we took a lot of lickings. A lot of these teams handed them out to us. They know how hard it is to try and beat these good players, so I think we respect the fact that it takes the chip and chase, just winning an inch here, an inch there. It’s good to see.”

NOTES: Tarasenko (one goal, three assists) joined Tkachuk (two goals, three assists), Max Lajoie (three goals, two assists) and Alexandre Daigle (four assists) as the only players to record multiple points in each of his first two home games with the Senators. … Tkachuk became the first player in Senators history to score multiple goals in each of the first two home games of a season. He is also the second player in team history to score multiple goals on consecutive days, (Dany Heatley, Dec. 12-13, 2007). … Cooper coached his 800th game for the Lightning. … Tampa Bay forward Austin Watson had three hits in 8:01 of ice time in his return to Ottawa. He played 176 games for the Senators from 2020-2023.