Ovechkin Nets 50th as Caps Take Down Tampa Bay, 6-3

When they last visited Tampa two weeks ago, the Caps were ultimately undone by a slow start in a 6-3 loss. On Saturday night at Tampa's Amalie Arena, they turned the tables on Tampa Bay, scoring three times in a dominant first period en route to a 6-3 victory.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the third to reach the 50-goal plateau for the eighth time in his NHL career, and Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie also had two goals each in support of another strong outing from Braden Holtby (25 saves). The win was Washington's fourth in a row and its first in three games against the Lightning this season.
After falling just short of 50 last season, Ovechkin made sure he did his shooting early this time around.

"Obviously you want to score as early as possible," says Ovechkin, "but I had pretty good chances before. It's going to eventually come, especially when the guys know that I have 49, and they try to find me all of the time. Thanks to them."
Although the Caps couldn't take advantage of a first-minute power play opportunity in the opening period, they were still able to forge an early lead. Christian Djoos broke up a Lightning play deep in Washington territory, starting Backstrom out of the zone. Backstrom carried almost to the Tampa line on a 3-on-2 rush, sending Tom Wilson into Lightning territory along the right wing wall. Wilson carried almost to the goal line before feeding Backstrom, who beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for his 20th goal of the season at 7:24 of the first.

Just past the midpoint of the first, the Caps doubled that lead when Carl Hagelin joined the duo of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Oshie for a shift, and it proved to be a wise personnel choice. Hagelin got in the right wing corner on the forecheck and started a fruitful shift in the offensive zone. Later in the shift, Hagelin helped the puck around the wall and out to the right point, where Nick Jensen sent it toward the net. Vasilevskiy stopped it, but a lunging Oshie swept the rebound in for a 2-0 Caps lead at 10:45.
Washington got a second power play chance late in the first, and this time took advantage to further extend its lead. The Caps worked the puck out to the point, and Oshie was able to tip a John Carlson shot past Vasilevskiy at 16:00, his second goal of the game.
The Caps limited the Lightning to just five shots on net in the first, none in the first 9:50 and just one over the final 8:07. None of those five shots in the first came from Tampa Bay's top six forwards.

"They're such a dangerous team," says Caps coach Todd Reirden of the Lightning. "That first game against them we lost, and then we lose the second one in overtime. It felt like our game was getting better against them, and then today it was important n to get a good start against them because they're so dangerous offensively. It's been a good growth period for us in these three games, and that's what it's all about with us is trying to build our group."
A couple minutes ahead of the midpoint of the second, the Caps scored their fourth unanswered goal. Backstrom pushed the puck out to Dmitry Orlov at the Tampa Bay line, and Orlov briefly surveyed before skirting Bolts forward Brayden Point and carrying down low on the right side with the puck on his backhand. Orlov put a return feed to the front for Backstrom, who tapped it home for his second of the night at 7:53, making it a 4-0 game.
The Lightning was finally heard from late in the frame. The Bolts got on the board at 17:25 when J.T. Miller deflected a Mikhail Sergachev shot past Braden Holtby to make it a 4-1 contest.
Tampa Bay cashed in on a rare Washington miscue to pull within two early in the third. The Caps turned the puck over at the Tampa Bay line, and Tyler Johnson scored on the ensuing breakaway to make it a 4-2 game at 3:36.

What had been a relatively polite game for the first 40 minutes turned surly in the third. Brooks Orpik tuned up Tampa Bay's Anthony Cirelli, and Tom Wilson dropped Eric Cernak in separate bouts a couple of minutes apart in the middle of the third, and then the Ovechkin show got underway.
Seconds after he missed on a good look at the Tampa net, Oshie fed him again and this time the Caps' captain buried his 50th goal of the season to make it a 5-2 game at 14:35. It's the eighth 50-goal season for No. 8, and only Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy (nine each) ahve more.

A hundred seconds later, Ovechkin notched No. 51 with a patented one-time drive from his left dot office, extending the Caps' bulge to 6-2.
Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov scored on a Lightning power play in the game's final minute to account for the 6-3 final.
With Ovechkin, Backstrom and Oshie all having an opportunity for the hat trick, Reirden was in the enviable position of putting three forwards with two goals each out on the ice against the best team in the league, with each of the three having a chance for a hat trick. Ovechkin unselfishly fed Oshie, whose redirect bid hit the right goal post.
"I kind of looked at Nick and I was like, 'Two hat tricks tonight?,' recounts Oshie. "And then the next thing you know, [Ovechkin] has two and then we just looked at each other like, 'Maybe we'll just let him get the hat trick.' So it was pretty crazy. And pretty unselfish of [Ovechkin] out there obviously looking for me out there on that one little 2-on-1 break we had there off the post.
"It's always fun scoring goals, and the big man scores a lot of goals."
Indeed he does. That's 658, and counting.