Burns: 3 Things from a rare win in Washington

With the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs bearing down hard on the Atlantic Division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning of late, the Bolts traveled to Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., a rink they haven't come home victorious since the final game of the 2013-14 regular season.
Sparked by perhaps their best period of the season, the Lightning finally broke through in our nation's capital, earning a 4-2 result for a monumental victory to start a three-game road trip.

Tampa Bay scored three goals in the first period to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission then held on as the Capitals inevitably pushed back in front of their home crowd.
Nikita Kucherov, however, pulled out the decepticon, using his sleight-of-hand trick on the breakaway to beat Braden Holtby - the same move he used on Holtby to record a hat trick in the All-Star Game earlier this season - and seal the victory.
The Lightning are on to Ottawa, where they'll look Thursday to rectify an abysmal 6-3 loss they suffered to the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre earlier this season.
But before moving ahead, let's take a look at how the Bolts were able to break through in D.C. in Three Things we learned from a rare win in Washington.

1. FAST START SPARKED WIN
The last time the Lightning visited Washington, Vladislav Namestnikov scored a power-play goal in the game's first 90 seconds, but the Bolts sputtered the rest of the way, falling 3-1.
On Tuesday, the Bolts again benefitted from an early power-play goal, Brayden Point one-timing Ryan Callahan's cross-crease feed past Caps goalie Braden Holtby to provide Tampa Bay the game's opening goal at 2:30.
Unlike their previous trip, however, the Lightning used the early goal to spur one of their best 20 minutes of the season.
An aggressive Lightning forecheck gave Washington little time to make decisions with the puck and forced numerous turnovers. The Bolts played with energy and pace in the first and hemmed the Caps in their own zone for much of the period.
With four minutes to go before the break, Tampa Bay was rewarded for its aggressive play, the forecheck creating a turnover behind the Caps goal. Ryan Callahan rimmed the puck around the boards to the right point for Andrej Sustr, who unleashed a shot that was redirected from the slot by Chris Kunitz past Holtby for a 2-0 Lightning lead.
"We earned the goals," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We played to our standard. We played to the way that we know we can play and what's made us successful in the past is being hard on pucks and hemming them in in their own end. Made some good, quick passes and were able to finish off some places. Yeah, really happy with the start of the game."

Less than two minutes later, Point took advantage of a Caps change to slip between a pair of defenders and drive hard to the net, depositing a backhand past Holtby to make it 3-0 Lightning.
"Our first period was great," said Bolts forward Ryan Callahan, who tallied two assists for his second multi-point game of the season. "That's one of the best periods I think we've played all year, just pressuring their forwards and making them make bad choices with the puck, quick decisions with it and putting the puck in the back of the net."
The Lightning set themselves up for success with a terrific start and were able to dig in defensively the rest of the way earn the win.

2. VASILEVSKIY WITHSTANDS LATE-PERIOD BARRAGE
Washington got on the board with a power-play marker near the midpoint of the second and continued to pressure the Tampa Bay net throughout the remainder of the period.
Over the final minutes before the second intermission, the Capitals had numerous chances to push another puck past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and cut into the lead even further.
But Vasilevskiy played his best during that late-period stretch, deftly tracking the puck and making quick reaction saves to maintain the two-goal lead heading into the second intermission.
"We know they're going to push and obviously we let them get too many shots, but Vasy made some great saves," Hedman said.
Had the Caps been able to beat Vasilevskiy before the end of the second period, they would have had all the momentum entering the third. The Lightning have lost third period leads in D.C. before, most notably, a 5-3 loss during the 2015-16 season when the Bolts led 3-0 but allowed five-consecutive goals, four of them coming in the third period and three of them on the power play, to lose.
But Vasilevskiy held firm between the pipes, particularly during that late, second period onslaught, and the Lightning were able to pull out the win as a result.
Vasilevskiy earned his NHL-best 35th win of the season. He's held the opposition to two or fewer goals in 28 of his 49 starts.
"Our goalie was on it when he had to be," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "There are a lot of positives to take out of the game, especially the fact we got the two points."

3. ENDING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The Lightning had lost five in a row in Washington entering Tuesday's tilt.
Over their last two games in D.C., the Bolts had scored a grand total of one goal.
The Caps have proven particularly tough to defeat in their home arena for Tampa Bay through the years.
Which made the 4-2 result one of the more satisfying wins the Lightning have had this season.
"Going back to the record we've had in this building, it hasn't been that great," Hedman said. "To come in here and start off a three-game road trip and get a big two points, it's big for confidence obviously. We knew they were coming off a back-to-back, but they're a really good team over there with a lot of skill. They play tough, so it's a big win for us and we'll get ready for the next one."
What made the Lightning's victory in D.C. even more satisfying was they did it with the Bruins and the Maple Leafs breathing down their necks. The Bolts could have found themselves in second place in the Atlantic for the first time in a long time this season had they lost and the Bruins won in Edmonton.
The victory keeps the Bolts in first place in the division as they head to Ottawa for Thursday's matchup with the Senators.
"All these games down the stretch here are tough," Callahan said. "You look at the standings, everything is so close, so tight and coming into this building, it's a tough place to play against a good hockey team, that's two huge points for us. We've been on the road quite a bit of late. To grab two points as we head out on another three-game trip here, it's big for us."
The Lightning ended a five-game losing skid in St. Louis earlier this season when they shut out the Blues 3-0 on December 12. They dropped six-straight contests in Nashville before downing the Predators in overtime 4-3 on January 23.
In D.C. on Tuesday, Tampa Bay picked up another slump-busting win in a building where victories have been extremely difficult to come by.
"This is my fifth year in the league and there's not a whole lot of Ws (in Washington)," Cooper said. "This has been a tough place to play for us. It's just a confidence builder that we can go into tough rinks to play in and get wins.
"It'll be good for our group."