Following the penalty kill, Point got a shift with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, who won a puck battle along the boards in the neutral zone that allowed Stamkos to jump on the loose puck and send a pass back to Kucherov in the high slot.
With his head up and eyes set on the net, Kucherov sent a no-look pass to Point, who snapped a quick one-timer past Mads Sogaard to get Tampa Bay back within one at the 10:28 mark of the second.
But After Tanner Jeannot was whistled for tripping with 3:51 remaining in the middle frame, Claude Giroux found Derick Brassard in the slot before he beat Brian Elliott to put Ottawa up 3-1 heading into the third period.
Still manning the point on the Lightning's top power-play unit, Mikhail Sergachev made it a 3-2 game with a power-play goal 4:10 into the third when he fired a one-timer that ricocheted off the post and then the back bar before quickly flying out of the net for his eighth goal of the season.
From there, things began to unravel. Caught on a bad change, the Bolts immediately surrendered another goal to the Senators when Erik Brannstrom was able to skate freely through the neutral zone before ripping a shot top shelf just 1:35 after Sergachev made it a one-goal game.
"They love to play off the rush and we talked about it at length before the game," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "Just don't feed their rush. And what did we do? We fed their rush. That was it."
With Ottawa back on the power play and the clock winding down, Brady Tkachuk made it 5-2, capitalizing on a back door pass from DeBrincat for his 31st of the year. Trailing by three, Cooper pulled Brian Elliott for an extra attacker with just over six minutes remaining, hoping to get back within two. But it was one of those nights for Tampa Bay as Tkachuk got his second of the game moments after the faceoff in the Senators zone and increased his team's lead to 6-2.
"We fed everything they did and it's unfortunate," said Cooper. "We're having a little tough stretch here, but it's all self-inflicted. I'm just not sure when they're going to learn, but they're learning tough lessons."
The final horn couldn't sound any sooner for the Bolts and Austin Watson added a seventh goal for Ottawa before the game came to a close with Tampa Bay suffering a third-straight loss.
"It's not for lack of effort," Stamkos said. "Obviously a lack of execution, but we're running out of time here.
