Ottawa Senators

Condon rescues a point in Senators' overtime loss to Lightning
March 15, 2017, 10:34 AM ET [12 Comments]
Jared Crozier
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Derick Brassard played a 2-on-1 like he was a forward playing defense, and that was the difference as Victor Hedman buried a pass from Ondrej Palat to give the Lightning a 2-1 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators.

It was a goaltending duel between Mike Condon and Andrei Vasilevskiy, who faced 32 and 37 shots respectively. Condon, who will be the starter for the foreseeable future as Craig Anderson nurses a lower body injury, made a number of incredible stops after the Lighting had taken a 1-0 lead to avoid letting his team fall down 2-0, and after Ottawa had tied it early in the second, he continued to shut the door to get the Senators a point.

The win was more important for the Lightning, who moved into a tie points-wise for the last wild-card spot with the Islanders as they head down the homestretch. Ottawa's point moves them within one of the division leading Canadiens, with the much anticipated 3 head to head games in 8 days that could go a long way to settling the top of the division on the horizon and set to begin Saturday.

Even with the return of Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan, the Senators really miss Mark Stone, who is the teams top forward and perhaps the most important Senator not named Erik Karlsson. Missing Stone is not an excuse, however, because they were looking across the ice at a team who are so depleted at centre, that 6 of their top 7 faceoff men (in terms of draws taken this season) are either injured (Stamkos, Johnson, Paquette, Namestnikov) or were traded at the deadline (Boyle, Filppula).

Erik Karlsson played over 30 minutes for the first time since late January, and while he played a strong game, he was -2 on the night while his compatriat Hedman was +2 and scored the winner in his 24 minutes. Hedman beat Karlsson to the Ottawa slot on the backcheck, but the pass from Palat went right through Brassard and Condon had no chance, and Karlsson was just a shade late.

Vasilevskiy matched Condon save for save, and secured the much needed win for his team, which heads home for a big game against the Maple Leafs on Thursday.

Ottawa will host the Blackhawks Thursday night, the team that did them a big favor by beating the Habs Tuesday. Chicago is in a battle of their own for first place, both in the division with the Wild and in the conference with the Sharks added into the mix.