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Striking while hot: Lightning win eighth in a row, tie team record

Steven Stamkos, Anton Stralman, Victor Hedman

Tampa Bay Lightning’s Victor Hedman (77), of Sweden, joins Anton Stralman, of Sweden, and Steven Stamkos to celebrate after Stamkos scored a goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New Jersey Devils on Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

AP

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) Ben Bishop made 33 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning tied a franchise record with their eighth straight victory, 4-1 over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

Cedric Paquette, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos - into an empty net - scored for the Lightning, who wrapped up a four-game road trip.

Marc Methot scored the lone goal for the Senators. Andrew Hammond, making his first start since Feb. 11, made 25 saves.

The Senators finally beat Bishop 5:24 into the third, making it a one-goal game. Zack Smith dropped the puck back to Methot, who put it under the crossbar for his third of the season.

But the Lightning put the game out of reach when Kucherov took advantage of Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s giveaway and beat Hammond easily at 18:14. Stamkos added his empty-netter with 14 seconds left.

Tampa opened the scoring at 4:14 of the second as Paquette eluded Erik Karlsson and knocked home his own rebound. The Senators have now allowed the first goal in 30 of the last 40 games.

The Lightning caught a break late in the period off a turnover at the blue line by the newly acquired Scott Gomez. Palat had an easy goal as Ottawa’s Mike Hoffman was tangled up with Hammond giving the goaltender no chance to make a save.

The Senators caught a break early in the first period when Tampa had a goal called back due to goaltender interference. Anton Stralman scored from just inside the blue line, but Ottawa challenged the goal and it was ruled that Erik Condra interfered with Hammond before the puck crossed the goal line.

NOTES: Senators D Mark Borowiecki injured his right knee on his first shift and is out indefinitely. ... Gomez, who was signed Wednesday by Ottawa, made his Senators debut. ... Ottawa was without G Craig Anderson (lower body, day-to-day). LW Matt Puempel and D Patrick Wiercioch were healthy scratches. Tampa D Andrej Sustr missed the game with an undisclosed injury and C Jonathan Marchessault was a healthy scratch.