Following back-to-back losses on home ice to the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators, the Tampa Bay Lightning had two days of practice to prepare for a big game against the Washington Capitals Thursday night at AMALIE Arena in hopes of preventing a three-game skid amidst a push for the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Bolts, the team was unable to accomplish its goal, falling to the Caps in a 5-3 defeat to move to 30-23-5 on the season with 24 games remaining on the schedule.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel got things started early for Washington, scoring just 2:30 into the first period after he banked the puck off the boards in the offensive zone before making a move around a Tampa Bay defenseman and lifting a backhand shot over the blocker of Andrei Vasilevskiy to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
With 3:41 remaining in the opening frame, Washington doubled its lead to 2-0 on a goal by Connor McMichael. After Tom Wilson threw a hit on Haydn Fleury in the corner, the Lightning defenseman was slow to get up as Joel Edmundson gained possession of the puck and found McMichael, who quickly beat Vasilevskiy with a shot to the left post to double the Capitals lead heading into the first intermission. Fleury left the game and was unable to return.
Looking to claw its way back into the game, Tampa Bay got back within one at the 9:16 mark of the second period when Brandon Hagel beat Charlie Lindgren to make it a 2-1 game. Taking a feed from Emil Lilleberg near the top of the right circle in the offensive zone, Nikita Kucherov sent the puck across the zone to Brayden Point, who found Hagel at the top of the left circle with a one-touch pass. Surveying his options, Hagel made a quick decision to fire the puck on net and beat Lindgren to the right post to pull the Bolts back within one.
As the crowd began to come back alive, Washington took the air out of the building just 2:58 later after the Lightning surrendered an odd-man rush, allowing Dylan Strome to find Anthony Mantha, who wired a shot past Vasilevskiy to restore the two-goal lead and make it a 3-1 game.
Going into the third period down by two, the Bolts stormed out of the gate with a purpose as Nick Paul got his team back within one with a nice individual effort for his 15th goal of the year. Collecting a pass from Conor Sheary in the neutral zone, Paul made a power move and skated right around Ethan Bear before chipping the puck over the blocker of Lindgren to make it 3-2 with 17:18 left in regulation.
Then, just 14 seconds later, Tyler Motte jumped on a loose puck after Nick Perbix won a battle in the offensive zone and quickly ripped a shot on goal that beat Lindgren and sent AMALIE Arena into a frenzy with the score evened at three apiece.
As the two teams fought for the go-ahead goal, the Capitals found a way to regain the lead when Rasmus Sandin found some open ice in the offensive zone and beat Vasilevskiy just below the glove with a shot from the high slot to make it a 4-3 game with only 4:59 remaining in regulation.
With the air once again sucked out of the building, McMichael found the empty net with 1:02 remaining, sealing the 5-3 win for Washington.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Brandon Hagel scored one goal and extended his career-long point streak to 11 games (8-8-16). Hagel's 11-game point streak is the longest active streak among all NHL skaters and is tied with Nikita Kucherov’s 11-game streak from Nov. 16-Dec. 6 (6-15—21) for the longest point streak among all Lightning skaters this season. Hagel is up to 54 points on the campaign (21-33—54).
- Nikita Kucherov recorded the secondary assist on Brandon Hagel’s goal and is up to 95 points on the season (36-59—95), the most among all NHL skaters. Kucherov is one assist away from recording his fourth career 60-assist seasons. He already holds the Bolts franchise record with three 60-assist seasons. With one more helper, Kucherov can join Connor McDavid (8), Sidney Crosby (7) and Nicklas Backstrom (5) as the only active players with at least four 60-assist seasons.
- Brayden Point picked up the primary helper on Brandon Hagel’s goal and extended his point streak to four games (3-2—5). Point has recorded 59 points this season (28-31—59).
- Nick Paul tallied his 15th goal of the season and it up to 30 points on the year (15-15—30).
- Conor Sheary picked up his 10th point of the season with the primary assist on Nick Paul’s goal (1-9—10).
- Calvin de Haan logged the secondary helper on Nick Paul’s goal and is up to eight points on the campaign (3-5—8).
- Tyler Motte scored his fifth goal of the season and moved to seven points on the year (5-2—7).
- Nick Perbix recorded the lone helper on Tyler Motte’s goal and now has 19 points on the season (2-17—19), one shy of tying his career high set last season (5-15—20).
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper: “Guys are pissed about how this has gone on…It’s time for us to get on the road and be together here and grind out some points. It’s the only thing we can do. Games are ticking away here, and teams are either catching us or passing us. We’ve got to start doing the same to some other teams here.”
- Tyler Motte: “Look forward. You can’t look back. You can’t change things. I’m sure we’ll watch some film and learn a little bit from it, but again, you’ve got to look forward. You’ve got to prepare for the next one. You’ve got to turn the page. We know that, this time of year, every win’s important. You’ve got to do whatever it takes to win.”
- Cooper: “The bottom line is we gave up four goals. It’s really hard to win in this league when you’re giving up four. Basically, in our last three games of the homestand, it’s just giving up too many, and that’s probably why we have no points.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
1. Rasmus Sanding
2. Dylan Strome
3. Nick Paul
Lightning Look Ahead
- Saturday, February 24 at New York Islanders, 2 p.m. ET, UBS Arena
- Sunday, February 25 at New Jersey Devils, 1 p.m. ET, Prudential Center
- Tuesday, February 27 at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. ET, Wells Fargo Center
