Caps Fall to Bolts in Round Robin Shootout

On Monday afternoon in Toronto, the Caps and the Tampa Bay Lightning hooked up in one of the more oxymoronic games in NHL history. It was a playoff game, because the league said it was and because there was a great deal of intensity and physicality through most of the contest. But after the first five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime in "playoff" history, the game ended with the ignominy of a shootout, an element that most fans of the game want no part of come playoff time.

Tampa Bay prevailed by a 3-2 count in the post-overtime skills competition, but the Caps claimed a point in the round robin standings, and they rallied from a two-goal deficit to force the unusual outcome.

"This was not a playoff game," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who wasn't having any of the NHL's nomenclature. "In saying that, yeah I was happy with the win. I was happy with a lot of the things that happened in this game. It was unfortunate that we had a two-goal lead and we let it slide in a couple of minute span, but there was a lot of things to build off. Both teams played hard. We have a little bit of a rivalry because we have played each other in the playoffs as recently as a couple of years ago. But I think both teams have more in them. I'm looking forward."

Playing its first "meaningful" game in exactly 21 weeks, Washington had the better of the chances in overtime and took an early lead in the first postseason shootout in NHL history, but the Lightning's Nikita Kucherov - who scored the game's first goal midway through the first - won it for the Bolts in the shootout.

"I don't think we had a slow start," says Caps captain Alex Ovechkin. "I think we tried to set the tone. We played all four lines, we played physical. Obviously, we didn't get lots of chances, but we tried to find our way. If you compare all the different games, it's different hockey. It's much faster and much [more] physical. So we tried to find our game, and obviously they got a goal in the first period, but it was our mistake."

Lars Eller's neutral zone turnover shortened the ice for the Lightning, and Brayden Point was quickly able to get the puck on Kucherov's stick. From the left circle, the Tampa Bay winger nestled a shot into the top far corner to give his team a 1-0 lead at 12:53 of the first.

The Lightning's fourth line doubled that lead with a forechecking goal at 7:48 of the second, putting the Caps down 2-0.

From the midpoint of the second until the waning minutes of the period, the Caps had been without a shot on net for more than six minutes when Eller did some mule work along the half wall and pushed the puck to Radko Gudas at the right point. Gudas lobbed a floater toward the Lightning cage, and when it handcuffed Bolts goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, Richard Panik was at the doorstep to jam it home, cutting the Lightning lead to 2-1 at 17:24.

Caps winger Garnet Hathaway drew a penalty on the next shift, and on the ensuing power play, Evgeny Kuznetsov tied the game on a goal similar to Panik's. Vasilevskiy couldn't corral a Dmirty Orlov wrist shot from center point, and Evgeny Kuznetsov jimmied it in from virtually the same spot as Panik's goal, and just 2:08 later. Kuznetsov's power-play goal enabled the Caps to enter the third period all even.

The Caps showed better in the third, and their top six forwards finally began to create some opportunities from high danger areas. But Vasilevskiy - a Vezina Trophy finalist for the third straight season - had the answer for all, and the game moved into overtime.

Ovechkin and Jakub Vrana each had excellent chances in overtime, but neither was able to get one behind the Lightning goaltender, setting the stage for Kucherov's decisive shootout marker.

Washington's second period awakening came shortly after Caps winger T.J. Oshie and Lightning winger Yanni Gourde dropped the mitts and engaged in a spirited scrap.

"We started to create some momentum in the second half of the second [period], and then really took it to a different level after T.J. really inspired our group," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "And then we just built on that."

"We were down 2-0 and we came back, so we showed the character we have in the locker room," says Panik. "From now on, just bring the 'A' game, bring the physicality, and I think we're going to be good."

And don't worry, sudden death playoff hockey is still alive and well. But for these round robin contests only - which are considered playoff games as far as counting stats are concerned - the League has resorted to the shootout to settle things if a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime is unable to do so.