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Ottawa Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson, left, celebrates a goal with left wing Brady Tkachuk against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. (Keito Newman/Imagn Images/Reuters)
Jake Sanderson scored a pair of goals and the Ottawa Senators moved closer to a playoff appearance with a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.
Jordan Spence, Fabian Zetterlund, Tim Stützle and Shane Pinto also scored for Ottawa. Brady Tkachuk had four assists and goaltender Linus Ullmark made 28 saves for the win.
Nick Paul and Corey Perry scored for the Lightning. Jonas Johansson made 26 saves.
Tied 1-1 to start the third, the Senators scored twice in less than two minutes to take a two-goal lead.
Perry pulled the Lightning within one midway through the third when he was left all alone and raised a shot over a sprawled Ullmark.
The Senators added a pair of power-play goals to secure the victory.
Pinto scored into an empty net.
With an assist on Ottawa’s opening goal, Stützle recorded his second-career 80-point season.
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk hits Tampa Bay’s Yanni Gourde Tuesday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Ottawa has four games left in their regular season as they try to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2012 and 2013. They cannot rise higher than a wild card spot, meaning they would play a division winner: Tampa, Carolina, Buffalo or Montreal.
Their simplest path to making it is to win three games. Fewer than that would take losses from the cluster of teams just behind them.
Of them, only Washington plays Wednesday.
Ottawa hosts Florida on Thursday.
WATCH | Some of the fan perspective:
Ottawa Senators fans celebrate win over Tampa Bay as team moves closer to playoff spot
Ottawa has four games left in their regular season as they try to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2012 and 2013. They cannot rise higher than a wild card spot, meaning they would play a division winner: Tampa, Carolina, Buffalo or Montreal.
