Caps Fall 5-4 to Bolts in OT Thriller

If you were in the building, you won't soon forget it. The defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals and the newly minted Presidents' Trophy Tampa Bay Lightning hooked up in a battle for the ages, one that left every onlooker thirsting for more, please.

The Caps set a franchise record for most shots on net in a game. Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy established a single-game high for saves. Jakub Vrana dropped the mitts and got into his first NHL fight. And Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in the final minute of regulation with Braden Holtby off for an extra attacker, giving the Caps a critical standings point.
At Wednesday night's end at Capital One Arena, the Caps came out on the short end of a 5-4 overtime decision in a thrill ride of a hockey game, and they also lost defenseman Michal Kempny to a lower body injury in the second period. Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman scored at 3:01 of the extra session to give Tampa Bay its second win over Washington in a span of four nights.

"I'm proud of our team, for how we played tonight," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "Back-to-back, going against a fresh team and we came out exactly how we wanted to start the game. We talked about improving in that area and we did."
Hedman carried into Washington ice, cut to the middle and seemed to be looking to dish, but ultimately beat Holtby with a backhander from just above the paint.
"I got the puck and was looking over my options," says Hedman. "I didn't really like what I saw. I blacked out, and I scored."
Washington killed off all four Lightning power plays in Saturday's meeting, including a lengthy five-on-three. But Tampa Bay's vaunted power play proved to be too much for the Caps' newly improved penalty kill corps to handle on Wednesday, going a perfect 3-for-3 on the night and scoring those three goals with just four shots.
"They had a lot of good chances on Saturday, they just didn't finish," says Caps defenseman Brooks Orpik of the Lightning power play. "Tonight they finished. I think they're at 29 percent or something like that, so you give them that many looks, they're going to make you pay."
At five-on-five, the Capitals showed they could play with the high octane Lightning, dominating the Bolts for stretches of the game, and pouring shots toward Vasilevskiy in volume. He was brilliant, making 54 saves - several of them dazzling - to run his record to 16-1-2 since the All-Star break and helping his team to its sixth straight win and its 18th in its last 20 games.

Washington got out to a much better start on Wednesday than it did in Saturday's first meeting. The Caps were assertive and physical and strong on the puck, and they didn't look like a team that played and traveled the night before. Tampa Bay's Alex Killorn, who had a hat trick in Saturday's game, gifted the Caps their first goal when he turned the puck over at the Lightning line, where Carl Hagelin happily scooped it up and fed Lars Eller, who cruised in alone and beat Vasilevskiy at 7:32 of the first to stake the Caps to a 1-0 lead.
The Caps had a pair of power plays with which to try to add to that advantage in the first, but they were unable to do so. Late in the period, Tom Wilson was sent off for holding, giving the lethal Lightning power play its first opportunity, a carryover into the second period.
Tampa Bay took advantage, getting a Nikita Kucherov goal to tie the game at 1-1 at 1:19 of the second, just nine seconds before the penalty was to expire.

Within a minute of Kucherov's goal, Alex Ovechkin took another minor to give the Lightning another extra-man chance, and this time Steven Stamkos slipped a shot past Braden Holtby just four seconds into the penalty, giving Tampa Bay its first lead of the night at 2:12 of the second.
At 6:45 of the second, Tampa Bay forged the only multi-goal lead either team would have on this night, doing so with its only five-on-five goal of the game. Anthony Cirelli banked a shot in off Caps defenseman John Carlson to make it 3-1.
Just after the midpoint of the middle period, the Caps crept back to within a goal on another Killorn giveaway. Eller scooped up the errant pass and returned the favor, feeing Hagelin to make it a 3-2 contest at 10:30.
Washington had six power play chances of its own, and the Caps pumped 16 shots at Vasilveskiy with the man advantage. Only one of those got past the Lightning goaltender, a T.J. Oshie chip shot from in tight that tied the game at 3-3 at 13:40 of the second, making it a brand new game.

Sometimes, it seems as though the Caps can't handle prosperity, and this was certainly one of those times. Dmitry Orlov took a slashing minor less than half a minute after Oshie's tying tally, putting the Lightning back on the power play. You know what happened next; Kucherov made a great shot to convert a terrific feed from Stamkos just seconds after the Caps had possession but failed to clear. The Lightning was back on top 4-3 at 15:01.
The lid boiled off the kettle soon after that. Cedric Paquette cross-checked Kempny, and the two began to tangle near the Washington bench. Meanwhile, Vrana fought Yanni Gourde and Oshie paired off with Mikhail Sergachev. Kempny had to be helped down the tunnel, sand he did not return. It didn't look good when he left, and it didn't sound good after the game.
"I think at this point it is safe to say he is going to miss some time," says Reirden. "We will find out some more [Thursday], but that's how we'll leave it for right now."
Down to five defensemen, playing for the second time in as many nights, and seeing a valued teammate injured in a needless skirmish, many wouldn't have faulted the Caps if they turned their efforts toward revenge at that juncture. But they kept at it, kept coming in waves at the Lightning, and kept trying to get the game tied up.
Vasilevskiy just wasn't having any of it. He made 20 saves in the second and 18 in the third, frustrating the Caps both off the rush and on in-zone opportunities. Seconds after he denied John Carlson in the final minute, Nicklas Backstrom pulled the puck out of a scrum in the corner and rolled it around the back of the net to Kuznetsov on the right side, the weak side. Kuznetsov crept closer and slipped a shot past the Lightning goaltender on the short side, tying the game at 4-4 with 52.6 seconds left.

The goal was Kuznetsov's 20th of the season and the 100th of his NHL career.
The Caps had chances in overtime as well, but it was one of those nights. They had to deal in volume just to get the point they did get. A night earlier in Newark, the Caps and Devils combined for 43 shots on net and 75 shot attempts in a snoozer of a game. By the 14-minute mark of the third period, the Caps had eclipsed both of those totals by themselves.
Washington outshot Tampa Bay 58-28, and it out-attempted the Bolts 86-51. Special teams and Vasilevskiy were the difference.
"It would be hard to dispute what he means to our team," says Lightning coach Jon Cooper of Vasilevskiy, "not only tonight, but for what he has done this season. It's pretty safe to say who our MVP was tonight. He was exceptional, and shame on us for giving up that many scoring chances, especially to a team playing a back-to-back."