The Ottawa Senators hope to bounce back from their first loss of the season when they host the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins in Sunday's clash at Scotiabank Place.
The Senators jumped out to a 3-0 start to the season before yielding six goals in Friday's loss at Tampa Bay. Ottawa was trying to win four straight to begin a season for the first time since going 5-0 in 2007-08.
Ryan Malone scored the game-tying goal early in the third period and then provided the go-ahead tally with just over seven minutes remaining to help the Lightning post the 6-4 decision at Tampa Times Forum.
Kyle Turris tallied a goal and an assist in the loss, while Erik Condra, Jason Spezza, and Erik Karlsson each scored once for Ottawa, which had won four straight against the Lightning. Ben Bishop was charged for five goals on 30 shots in a losing effort.
"We gave up six goals, that's something we certainly did not want to do," Ottawa coach Paul MacLean admitted. "They made it difficult for our goaltender and for the most part I thought they controlled the game and had the puck way more than we did."
The Senators played Friday's tilt without winger Guillaume Latendresse, who is battling an undisclosed injury. Latendresse is questionable for Sunday's contest.
While Ottawa attempts to rebound after its first loss of the season, the Penguins will try to avoid losing their third straight contest. Pittsburgh began the season 2-0 but has suffered setbacks in its last two games against Toronto and Winnipeg.
After dropping Wednesday's 5-2 decision against the visiting Maple Leafs, the Penguins were handed a 4-2 defeat Friday night in Winnipeg. Pittsburgh went ahead 2-0 in the first period before the Jets closed the game with four unanswered tallies.
Sidney Crosby, playing in his first career game in Winnipeg, recorded both Pittsburgh goals in the first period and Tomas Vokoun was charged for three goals on 31 shots for the Penguins.
"We turned some pucks over and made mistakes and they capitalized on them," Crosby admitted. "Just mistakes on our part."
Crosby missed both trips to Winnipeg in 2011-12 while dealing with concussion problems.
Pittsburgh's No. 1 netminder Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to get the start on Sunday. He is 7-8-1 with a 3.57 goals against average in 20 career games against Ottawa.
The Senators won three of four meetings with Pittsburgh in 2011-12 and Ottawa scored 22 times in the season series. The Pens have lost two in a row and four of their last five in Ottawa.
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