Four different defensemen scored for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who beat the lowly visiting Ottawa Senators 5-1 on Saturday night to match the NHL mark for fewest games to 50 wins.

Blue-liners Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Erik Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev all had goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves in his ninth straight victory for the NHL-leading Lightning, who rebounded after their club-record 10-game winning streak and 14-game point stretch ended at Boston on Thursday.

Tampa Bay, which has won seven straight at home and earned a point in 10 consecutive there, equaled Detroit's record of 50 wins in 66 games from the 1995-96 season.

The Lightning also endured a scary moment when star Steven Stamkos was hit awkwardly in the legs by Ottawa's Brian Gibbons with just under six minutes left in the second period. Stamkos sat the rest of the period, but returned for the third.

The Senators, meanwhile, dropped their seventh straight in the first game since interim coach Marc Crawford replaced the fired Guy Boucher.

Hedman put the Lightning up 1-0 at 7:17 into the first period, when he sent home a rebound. The veteran defenseman has two goals in three games after going 13 straight without one.

McDonagh scored less than two minutes later following nifty passes from Nikita Kucherov and Cernak. Ottawa, though, made it 2-1 when Anthony Duclair flipped one past Vasilevskiy off a 2-on-1 rush at 9:28 in the first. It's Duclair's second goal in four games since coming over from Columbus.

But the production from the Lightning defensemen continued when Cernak fired one home from the right circle 3:15 into the second to make it 3-1. Ottawa had a chance to get closer but Bobby Ryan's penalty shot was thwarted by Vasilevskiy early in the second.

Kucherov, the NHL leader with 106 points, extended his home point streak to six games with his 31st goal at 15:27 into the second. Sergachev padded the advantage with a laser from the point at 1:59 into the final period.

--Field Level Media