Burns: 3 Things we learned from outlasting the Caps

Tampa Bay established two more franchise records in Saturday's 6-3 win over the Washington Capitals, the first of three meetings between the two 2018 Eastern Conference finalists.
The Lightning picked up win No. 55 of the season to set a new record for victories in a season, bettering the old mark of 54 wins set a season ago. And the Bolts now have 114 points on the year, another team record for the most they've ever recorded in a season and one point more than the 113 they had last season.

Tampa Bay also moved closer to locking up a third Eastern Conference regular season title and fourth division crown. The Lightning's magic number to clinch both is now just two, and the Bolts can take care of business themselves when they host the Arizona Coyotes Monday night at AMALIE Arena.
Of course, If the Lightning can't finish the job Monday, they'll still have nine more opportunities over the final three weeks of the regular season to do so.
Such is life when you hold a 19-point lead over the rest of the East.
Saturday's game had a playoff feel, and the Lightning liked how they responded to the challenge.
Here's Three Things that helped them handle the Caps.

1. KILLORN'S HATTY
Take away his three goals and Alex Killorn still had a heck of a game against Washington. He played with a physicality to match what the Capitals were bringing with each shift. He hunted the puck and wanted it on his stick. Often, his line was matched against the Caps top line of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson, and, more often than not, Killorn and his linemates came out on top.
Now add the fact he scored three goals, and Alex Killorn's selection as the game's First Star was a no-brainer.
Killorn recorded his first career hat trick in a pivotal regular season game for the Lightning. The Lightning left wing has a knack for scoring goals in crucial moments. He netted the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Final to send the Lightning to the Stanley Cup Final. He scored the first goal of that Cup Final versus Chicago with an unbelievable tipped puck bounced off the ice and in with his back to goal.
When the stakes are at their highest, Killorn can usually be counted on to play one of his best games.
"He was unbelievable tonight," Killorn's linemate Anthony Cirelli said. "He's skilled. He's fast. He's strong. He works so hard every single shift, every night. I have a lot of fun playing with him, and he had a heck of a night tonight."
Killorn's first goal was fortuitous. He simply threw a puck on net from the wall, and it ricocheted off Dmitry Orlov and past an unaware Braden Holtby to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead in the opening period.
After John Carlson cut the Caps deficit in half, Killorn re-established the two-goal lead, getting the puck with speed into the zone and only Nick Jensen back defending. Killorn backed Jensen down and outfought him to get a shot on net then potted his own rebound to make the score 3-1.
"The second goal with Jensen there, that was outstanding effort by him," Tyler Johnson said. "We kind of said all year our team has four lines that can score. It's someone different every night. That's what makes us a very good hockey team."
Killorn's empty-net goal with 47 seconds remaining sealed Tampa Bay's victory. Nikita Kucherov, who tallied two assists Saturday to move to 117 points on the season, hustled to eliminate a potential icing after Victor Hedman's empty-net try fluttered an inch wide of the goal. Kucherov worked the puck along the wall and into the left circle, where Killorn hopped onto it and one-timed a shot around Alex Ovechkin, who was the lone Caps player back defending the empty net.
"That's what we've basically seen out of Killorn in most postseasons just like that, maybe not three goals every time but he definitely deserved one," head coach Jon Cooper said of Killorn's hat trick.

2. PLAYOFF PREVIEW
Saturday night's game wasn't necessarily a preview of a potential Eastern Conference Final rematch between the Bolts and Caps, although that possibility certainly exists.
Rather, the style of play Washington brought to the AMALIE Arena ice is one the Lightning are likely to see plenty of when the postseason begins.
The Capitals made a point to ramp up the physicality of the game from the opening puck drop. Tom Wilson did Tom Wilson things, smacking into Mikhail Sergachev and slamming him hard into the glass, forcing Sergachev to miss much of the first period while he recovered from the hit. Alex Ovechkin was a runaway freight train at times too, as Jan Rutta found out in the first period when Ovechkin plowed into him with speed and power to finish a check.
The Lightning, however, expected a physical game from the Capitals. They weathered the early violence and they even dished out a little of their own, this year's team perhaps built a bit better to withstand a full 60 minutes of punishment.
"Washington tried to come at us a little bit harder, playing the physicality of some guys that can play that way, but so do we," Johnson said. "I've always said that we can answer any bell, and I think we did that tonight."
Some might look at Saturday's heavyweight slugfest and worry about needlessly sustaining an injury late in the regular season with the playoffs looming.
But Cooper welcomed the physical nature of the contest, equating it to the style of game the Lightning will have to face throughout the playoffs.
The fact his team responded the way it did had to feel pretty good for the veteran coach.
The Lightning didn't back down from the rough and tumble nature of the game and frustrated the Capitals with their ability to withstand the punishment while delivering some of it themselves.
"You can look at it as it's game 72, but when you're getting down into April and you need to start amping up your game and feeling physical games against bigger teams, that was one of them," Cooper said. "I thought we showed really well. That was two really good hockey teams going at it. It was a lot of fun."

3. CERNAK'S RESPONSE
After Tampa Bay stormed out to a 3-1 lead following the first period, Washington answered the Bolts' strong start in the second. The Capitals outshot the Lightning 13-5 in the period and pulled to within one at 7:33 of the middle frame on Alex Ovechkin's power-play goal.
The Lightning had the play covered, but an unfortunate bounce right into Ovechkin's wheelhouse on a blocked shot by Hedman allowed the Caps to inch closer.
Washington continued to control play through the second and had plenty of opportunities to score. Tampa Bay's defensive zone coverage left a lot to be desired but timely blocked shots and scrambling saves by Andrei Vasilevskiy kept the Lightning in front.
The Bolts were gifted a 5-on-3 power play in the final minute of the second period that they were unable to take advantage of, partially because the power play was interrupted by the end of the period. When the Caps were able to kill off both penalties early in the third, momentum was squarely on their side.
Erik Cernak, however, promptly wrestled it back for the Bolts with his timely goal 2:45 into the third period, a shot from the right circle that squeezed through the legs of Caps goalie Braden Holtby and proved to be the game-winning goal.
"Size, speed, strength, he's got them all," Cooper said of Cernak. "He doesn't have near the games under his belt, but you wouldn't see it by the way he's playing."
Cernak's marker gave the Lightning a bit of a cushion they surrendered when Ovechkin scored the first of his two goals in the second period. And it was a needed cushion because Ovechkin slipped home a rebound with 7:04 remaining to again get Washington within a goal.
But by that point, the Caps didn't have another rally left in them. Playing from behind the whole game, cutting the deficit to one two separate times only to watch it grow back to two took its toll on the Caps.
Without Cernak's goal, it's hard to say if the Lightning would have been able to stave off the Caps for much longer.