Lightning trying to stay ahead of pack in Atlantic race

WASHINGTON -- Nikita Kucherov was on the receiving end of some playful ribbing from his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates after their 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was among those teasing Kucherov about whether he had intentionally let the puck go or lost it accidentally on his breakaway goal that put the Lightning up 4-2 with 7:02 remaining and eased the pressure after the Capitals had cut their 3-0 lead to 3-2.

Kucherov has let the puck go intentionally before, including at the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game in Tampa against Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby, who was victimized again Thursday with the clinching goal sliding between his pads.

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"Well, you've seen me do it before, so I did it again," Kucherov said when pressed on if the move was intentional.
Lightning center Brayden Point, who scored two goals, sounded unsure about Kucherov's intention, saying, "I don't know. You never know with him; he's so good."
But there was no question Kucherov's goal was a big one for the Lightning in their battle to stay in first place in the Atlantic Division.
"We were reeling a little bit, so that gave us some breathing room," Point said.
The Lightning (40-17-3) entered without much breathing room atop the Atlantic and likely home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, at least through the Eastern Conference Final. The Boston Bruins, who have played two fewer games, have been chasing the Lightning over the past two months and remained one point behind following their 3-2 win at the Edmonton Oilers later Tuesday.
The Toronto Maple Leafs (37-20-5) remained four points behind the Lightning after defeating the Florida Panthers 1-0 on Tuesday.

"You're looking at the standings," Lightning forward Ryan Callahan said. "It's getting to that time of year where you're peeking at it every once in a while. Boston and Toronto have been on pretty good runs here and we've slipped a little bit. Obviously you'd like to stay in first place, but at the same time you're worrying about your game and how you're playing going into this last stretch here and into the playoffs."
Helped by a 9-1-1 start, the Lightning have held sole possession of first place in the Atlantic since Oct. 19. It appeared they'd cruise to division title when they were 24-6-2 following a 6-5 win at the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 16. The Bruins lost 3-2 in overtime to the New York Rangers that day to fall to 15-10-5, leaving them 15 points behind the Lightning.
But the Bruins turned it on after that. The overtime loss to the Rangers was the start of a 17-game point streak (14-0-3), which tied for third longest in their history. Since Dec. 16, they are 22-3-3.
The Maple Leafs also have made a push, going 11-2-0 in their past 13 games.
The Lightning have gone 16-11-1 since Dec. 16, including 9-8-0 in their past 17.

"We know they're getting close," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said of the Bruins and Maple Leafs. "We always want to push them behind us if we can. Our focus right now is to try to win every game down the stretch. We know it's tough to do that, but we've got to go in with that mindset to every game. We want to play the right way and play to our structure and we know if we play that way, that's made us the most successful in the past."
The Lightning played how they wanted in the first period and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Point went to the right post to knock in a feed from Callahan for a power-play goal 2:30 into the game. Chris Kunitz made it 2-0 with a deflection goal with four minutes left in the first period, and Point blew past Capitals defenseman John Carlson with 2:08 left to make it 3-0.
After that, the Lightning had to hold on with the Capitals outshooting them 29-11 over the final two periods. But goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves, and Kucherov's goal stemmed the Capitals' momentum after Alex Ovechkin pulled them within 3-2 with 8:58 remaining.
"Are we happy with the result? Of course we are," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "But we got that lead and then we kind of sat back and tried to defend it instead of going on the attack. They've got a really good team back there, so if we're going to keep giving them a chance, we just ended up defending a lot."
Cooper wasn't about to get picky about this win, though; the Lightning were 2-10-3 in their previous 15 visits to Washington and hadn't won in regulation in the regular season here since March 12, 2010.

"The record that we've had in this building hasn't been that great," he said. "So, to come in here and start off a three-game road trip and get a big two points is big for the confidence."
The Lightning know the division race will likely go down to the wire. They face the Bruins three times in the final three weeks of the season: March 17 at Tampa Bay, March 29 at Boston and April 3 at Tampa Bay.
"At this point, we're just trying to get as many points as we can because we're getting close to the end of the season," Kucherov said. "The last [22] games is definitely huge. We're just taking one game at a time and [trying to] make the most of it."