Caps Blank Bolts 3-0, Forcing Game 7

Facing elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time this spring, the Caps turned a do or die into do and fly with a 3-0 win over the Lightning in Monday night's Game 6 at Capital One Arena. Washington's win squares the series at three games each, and the Caps will fly to Florida for a decisive Game 7 in Tampa on Wednesday night.

The winner of that Game 7 earns a date with the Vegas Golden Knights in the Cup final series.

Washington goaltender Braden Holtby spun his first shutout in a span of 84 starts - including the playoffs - as he set aside all 24 Tampa Bay shots, halting a three-game Washington skid and giving the Caps a chance to break through at the other end of the ice.

It started with Holtby, but the Caps got a team effort from top to bottom in one of their best overall 60-minute performances in their 18 playoff games this spring.

"I think we've had a couple of good games, but tonight was definitely up there," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie, who scored twice in Monday's win. "We played with - not really a sense of desperation because I don't think we felt desperate out there - but a pretty direct urgency and it was throughout the entire lineup. From Holts all the way through, everyone made an impact on the game tonight, and that's when we're at our best."

Since the start of Game 3, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been excellent, rebounding from a rocky start in the first two games of the series. He was tremendous again on Monday, and it took a couple of precision plays to beat him.

After a scoreless first, the middle stanza was playoff hockey at its best. It was swift, physical, intense, urgent, fiery, cantankerous and vastly entertaining. Both teams had a power play opportunity, with the Lightning getting its extra-man chance in the first minute of the frame. Washington killed it off without incident, Holtby halting a Steven Stamkos one-timer from the left dot on the Bolts' best look.

Washington's power play came in the back half of the period. After Vasilevskiy stopped an Ovechkin one-timer from the office and after John Carlson rang iron from center point, the Caps finally broke through on their first extra-man opportunity in a span of 126 minutes and 41 seconds, dating back to the second period of Game 4.

From the goal line, Kuznetsov went to Nicklas Backstrom on the half wall. Backstrom surveyed only briefly before putting it on a tee for Oshie, in tight quarters in the middle of a diamond of four white sweaters. Oshie squeezed a shot off, and more importantly, he was able to get it behind Vasilevskiy for a 1-0 Caps lead at 15:12 of the middle frame.

"I think the biggest thing there is No. 8 in his office over there," says Oshie, when asked about his power-play goal. "How teams play us all depends on where he is and how they want to play him.

"For me, it's a matter of a couple of feet here and there to try to find that soft area. And whether it's Nick or Kuz, typically they're able to find a way to get the puck into the wheelhouse there, and then it's up to me to find a hole."

The Caps nursed that narrowest of leads into the final frame, and as the Lightning pushed hard for the equalizer, it was Holtby's turn to shine. He made a confident glove save on Nikita Kucherov early in the period, and made an excellent stop on a Ryan McDonagh point shot that Anthony Cirelli got a piece of on its way to the net. Minutes later, Holtby flashed the glove again to deny an Ondrej Palat shot.

Vasilevskiy kept the deficit at one for his team, walling off Lars Eller's deflection try on a Brooks Orpik point shot.

Washington's fourth line manufactured a critical insurance goal midway through the third. Devante-Smith Pelly lofted a high flip from the goal line in his own end, and Chandler Stephenson outraced Bolts blueliner Braydon Coburn to the puck, negating an icing and nudging it into the right wing corner for Jay Beagle. Beagle rolled it right back to Stephenson, who put a sublime feed to space in front for the late guy, Smith-Pelly. He ripped a shot past Vasilevskiy on the blocker side to give the Caps some much needed breathing room at 10:02.

"I saw Beags get it, and just kind of looked up ice," recounts Stephenson. "I saw Devo coming, and I knew I didn't really have a lane on my forehand, so I just kind of spun on my backhand and threw it. It was a good play by him to get up ice and to beat that check."

After starting the play with a high flip, Smith-Pelly got on his horse and charged into the zone, creating the time and space necessary to convert Stephenson's pass.

"When I turned around I saw Stevie already taking a couple of steps," says Smith-Pelly of the goal's genesis, "and Beags is quick as well, so I just thought I'd flip it and make it kind of a two-on-two, and just try to beat my guy up the ice. It worked out perfectly."

When Backstrom was sent to the box for tripping a minute later, Washington penalty killers rose to the occasion. Two shots on net were taken during those two minutes, and both of them came off District blades. Vasilevskiy literally had to use his head to nod off a Wilson shot during that Lightning power play.

Subsequent stops on Backstrom and Jakub Vrana later in the frame gave the Bolts a chance to pull Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker, but the Caps sealed the deal with 47.9 seconds remaining. Backstrom fed Oshie for that one, too.

"We were no good," laments Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "We didn't play with near the desperation [the Caps] did. Was it a fairly even game? There is no question. But what were hits, 39-19? Somebody was engaged and somebody wasn't. You know, that's a choice.

"You can spin this any way you want. You can sit here and say, 'Oh, good for Tampa. They were down 0-2 and they pushed this to a Game 7.' Or you can say, 'Wow, they blew a big opportunity to close the series out.' In the end, there is a Game 7 and it's at home. If you said to me, 'You just have to go 2-2 at home in this series and you're going to win it,' we'll take that. We took two on the road, and now we've got to go home and make sure that we take care of business there. Shame on us if we don't."

Bringing the physicality and winning the special teams and goaltending battles helped the Caps live to fight another day, and that day is Wednesday.

"This group has a lot of energy - a lot of fortitude," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "They just do. I'm really proud of how they've grown, the older guys as well as the young guys. Just as a team - our team concept - we just keep taking whatever challenge is thrown at us and build off of that. This group doesn't waver. It just has a spirit about it, a strong spirit.

"Going into Game 7 - and I've been doing this for a while - I don't think there is a team I've ever had that I would want to go into a Game 7 with. This team has done a lot of special things this year. It's grown and it continues to do that. What an opportunity to go to Game 7, going into Tampa. We've won on the road, and we've won at home here. We'll see if we can earn the right to keep playing."