OTTAWA -- Victor Hedman was a sheepish hero.

The Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman said all the credit for his winner, with 53.9 seconds left in overtime, belonged to teammate Ondrej Palat.

It was Palat's pass off a 2-on-1 that Hedman redirected into an open side to give the surging Tampa Bay Lightning a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night.

"I just had to have my stick on the ice and I knew he was going to find me, one way or the other," said Hedman, "or he was going to shoot it, but I was ready in case he was going to pass it.

"It was a tremendous pass and it was probably the easiest goal of the year for me."

The win was the fourth in a row for the Lightning, and marked the sixth consecutive game in which Tampa picked up at least a point.

It also moved the Lightning (34-26-9) into a tie for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with the New York. Pretty impressive, considering that on Feb. 3 Tampa was sitting in the conference basement.

"I don't know if you can explain that feeling," said Hedman. "We've really got something going on right now and it's really fun to be a part of. We just keep finding ways to win."

The loss put an end to a six-game winning streak for the Senators (39-22-7), but the single point moved them to within one of the Montreal Canadians for first place in the Atlantic Division.

Brayden Point scored Tampa's regulation time goal while Tommy Wingels replied for the Senators.

While Andrei Vasilevskiy was solid with 31 saves, Senators goalie Mike Condon made 35 stops and was particularly spectacular in a third period onslaught that saw him turn aside Nikita Kucherov twice, as well as Greg McKegg and Jonathan Drouin.

"I was lucky to get a pad on some of those, they had a pretty wide open net," said Condon, whose record slipped to 18-11-6 on then season. "I was just trying to stick a leg out, desperation style. Sometimes you get 'em, sometimes you don't. Tonight, I was fortunate to get those, but not the outcome that we wanted."

Senators winger Zack Smith said Condon was "huge" between the pipes.

"He had three or four highlight saves that we'll probably be watching tomorrow," said Smith.

"Whatever goalie we have in there, they give us a chance every night, and Mike did that and more tonight. It was just too bad we couldn't get the win for him."

Senators coach Guy Boucher was so disappointed in his team's third period that he kept one of his answers in the post-game media availability to a single word, and another to just one sentence. That's unheard of him for him.

Boucher had given the Senators two days off after they returned from a road trip Sunday morning, hoping it would give the players extra energy against the Lightning, which was playing the second of back-to-back games.

"We knew there was a lot of juice that was left on that road trip, and we know we've got a lot of guys banged up," said Boucher. "After the second period, we were looking good and it looked like we were getting our game back. I was expecting a much better third period but we didn't have it.

"We tried to play run and gun with a team that's much better than us at that. They've got more skill than us. Condon saved us there and got us a point."

The Lightning face the next test when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday in the first of a three-game home stand. Coach Jon Cooper can't wait for the puck to drop again.

"Those boys, man, are they battling hard," said Cooper. "It's been a lot of fun to be behind the bench with these guys. That was a heck of a hockey game, by the way. Oh, man, was it fast. I thought as every period went on, we got stronger and stronger and it was almost like we got a little quicker.

"What's really impressed me is everybody has come together as a group and there's just kind of that never die attitude going on in there. Everybody is contributing, whether it's a guy winning a face-off or blocking a shot or scoring a big goal. A lot of those guys that have been down that road with us the last couple years, it's almost like they are going to lead the way and the new guys coming up aren't going to let them down. It's kind of working for us."

The Senators next game is at home to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday

NOTES: Senators G Craig Anderson did not dress as he's dealing with a "lower body" injury suffered in Saturday's game against Colorado, a game he completed, and won, to move past Patrick Lalime on the Senators all time most victories list. Coach Guy Boucher said the severity of the injury would likely be determined on Wednesday ... Senators other scratches were D Jyrki Jokipakka and F Chris DiDomenico ... Lightning C Vladislav Namestnikov was scratched ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson and C Cedric Paquette both missed their third consecutive game to lower body injuries.