Point's two goals help Lightning defeat Capitals

WASHINGTON -- Brayden Point scored two goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves to help the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.
Point scored twice during a three-goal first period for the Lightning (40-17-3), who defeated the Capitals in regulation on the road for the first time since March 12, 2010. Tampa Bay was 2-10-3 in its previous 15 games in Washington.

The Lightning moved three points ahead of the Boston Bruins for first place in the Atlantic Division. Nikita Kucherov extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, seven assists).
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Capitals highlights]
"[The standings] are close," Point said. "We look at it, but definitely more focused on what we're doing down the stretch, hopefully, heading into playoffs."
Alex Ovechkin scored his League-leading 36th goal to cut the lead to 3-2 at 11:02 of the third period and is six away from 600 in his NHL career. But Kucherov scored his 32nd goal at 12:58 to make it 4-2.
"It's definitely a huge win for us, especially against a team that's playing well," Kucherov said. "It's always tough to play well in their building. I don't think we had a lot of success in the past few years here. It's just a good start of a road trip."
Braden Holtby made 15 saves and Lars Eller scored a power-play goal for the Capitals (34-19-7), who are one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
"I think we lose the game in the first period today," Eller said. "Three is a lot to catch up, especially when you're playing the No. 1 team in the League. Was it doable? Yeah. We were close, but it'd be a lot easier if we weren't down three."

Point's power-play goal at 2:30 of the first period gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead.
Chris Kunitz deflected home a shot by Andrej Sustr at 16:00 to make it 2-0. Point scored his second goal 1:52 later when he drove the net hard and got a backhand shot past Holtby as he was knocked to the ice.
"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."
Holtby is 0-2-2 in his past four starts.
"That's on no one else but me," Holtby said. "Those third, fourth goals, especially, that's the difference in the game. I thought we played a really strong against a really good team and should have got a better result, and that's on me why we didn't."
Eller's shot from the top of the right circle beat Vasilevskiy at 9:32 of the second to make it 3-1.
Washington outshot Tampa Bay 29-11 over the final two periods.
Kucherov's goal against Holtby was reminiscent of the one he scored against him in the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Jan. 28. Shortly after Kucherov turned the puck over at the blue line that led to a quality scoring chance for Evgeny Kuznetsov, he took a pass from Braydon Coburn alone up ice and again pushed the puck between Holtby's skates to extend the lead.
"We know how they play even if they're down," Kucherov said. "They just need one goal. Just tried to play the same we as we did in the first and try to keep it simple. Get the puck deep and go get it."

Goal of the game

Point's goal at 17:52 of the first period.

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Save of the game

Vasilevskiy's save against Ovechkin at 3:58 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Kucherov's goal at 12:58 of the third period.

They said it

"I think we earned it. We played to our standard. We played to the way we know we can play. What's made us successful in the past is being hard on pucks and penning them in their own end. So, we made some good plays. We had some good passes. Really happy with the way we started the game." -- Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman
"The Chicago game [a 7-1 loss on Saturday] stunk. We all know that. We played better [a 3-2 win at the Buffalo Sabres] on Monday. It took us a period to get going tonight, but then we played really, really hard. The last two periods, man did we play hard. That's a good sign." -- Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen

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Need to know

Kucherov leads the League with 78 points. … The Capitals are 7-5-4 since Jan. 11. … Eller scored Washington's first goal of a game for the fifth time this season. It was the 97th goal of his NHL career.

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What's next

Lightning: At the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, SUN, NHL.TV)
Capitals: At the Florida Panthers on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, FS-F, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)