Braden Holtby, Capitals shut out Lightning

WASHINGTON-- Braden Holtby made 23 saves for the Washington Capitals in a 4-0 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Verizon Center on Friday.
The shutout was his third of the season and 26th of his NHL career.
John Carlson scored twice, and Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson scored for the Capitals (20-8-4).

WATCH: All Lightning vs. Capitals highlights
"I thought we were sharp and we were focused and we were aggressive too," Washington forward Nicklas Backstrom said. "We were shooting the puck. All these small things are so important. That's something we've been talking about and something we've wanted to do for a long time so just got to keep going."

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning (17-15-3). Kristers Gudlevskis made three saves in relief.
Carlson scored 55 seconds into the first period for a 1-0 lead. His slap shot from the blue line deflected off two Lightning defensemen and over Vasilevskiy. The goal was Carlson's first at even-strength and second of the season.
Carlson's second goal of the game came at 15:42 and gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead.
"They got the 2-0 lead and the irony of the whole thing is we only gave them four shots in the last 15 minutes of the first period," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "So, as ugly as it looked, they did all their damage in the first five minutes and that kind of changed the game. The kicker, though, was when we didn't score in the first five minutes of the second. We were all over them. We needed the next goal and, ultimately, they weathered that storm and got the third one and that was it."
Ovechkin scored his 15th goal of the season at 10:48 of the second period for a 3-0 lead. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov chipped the puck ahead to Ovechkin, who scored on a breakaway.
Johansson scored at 8:33 of the third period to make it 4-0. Backstrom sent a cross-ice pass to Johansson as he left the penalty box, and Johansson scored his 13th goal of the season on a breakaway.

Goal of the game

Carlson scored his second on a one-timer off Johansson's pass from behind the net.

Save of the game

Vasilevskiy denied Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen's point shot with a stick save in the second period.

Highlight of the game

Orlov sprang Ovechkin for a breakaway with his flip pass through traffic. Ovechkin deked around Vasilevskiy and scored on the backhand.

Unsung performance of the game

Hedman left the game in the second period with 9:28 remaining after taking what he called a "bad hit" but returned for the third and played a total of 19:00 and had one shot on goal.

They said it

"It's good so we can try to build off that momentum on the other side of it, and I think everyone's looking forward to a couple days off, shut their mind off a little bit and enjoy ourselves. It's going to be a crazy next month or month and a half with all the games that we play, so it's kind of our last time to relax before that." -- Capitals defenseman John Carlson
"We knew it wasn't really coming at the start, but I think more than that … [defensemen] success, the way we play, has everything to do with net presence. They did a good job of that tonight … gave our [defense] a chance to score and obviously John had a couple nice shots." --Capitals goalie Braden Holtby on getting offense from defensemen

"We knew it was a tough one obviously coming in late last night, but it's no excuse. They're a great hockey team, there's no question about that. We had two shots in the first period, they scored two goals. I think we played better in the second and the third, but Holtby played well too. He made some big saves for them. It's a learning tool for us, a learning tool for our young guys coming up and playing. So there's no excuses for this game. We've got to be better." -- Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman

Need to know

Ovechkin is 10 points from 1,000 in the NHL. … Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin and defenseman Braydon Coburn each left the game in the second period. Cooper said they will be evaluated Saturday.

What's next

Lightning: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, RDS, SUN, NHL.TV)
Capitals: At the New York Islanders on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-DC, MSG+2, NHL.TV)