For a split second on Wednesday night at AMALIE Arena, it appeared Anthoy Cirelli had extended his goal-scoring streak to seven games and put the Tampa Bay Lightning ahead of the Washington Capitals in the dying minutes of regulation.
But shouts of grateful fans on the eve of Thanksgiving quickly pivoted to thoughts of, ‘What just happened?’ after the goal was waved off and the Lightning were instead given a four-minute double minor for high-sticking.
Washington's Tom Wilson scored on the ensuing power play with 3:28 left in the game to hand the visitors a 5-4 win, marking a stunning finish to a game in which the Capitals erased three separate Lightning leads.
“It’s just kind of an unfortunate circumstance that that happened, but in the end we gotta kill it off, and we didn't kill it off,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the play. “You’re put in stress at different times in the game, and we were put in a stressful situation to kill off a 4-minute minor with four minutes left, and we couldn't get it done.”
Cooper was celebrated midway through the first period on Wednesday, a game that marked his 900th in the NHL. Cooper’s 536 career wins are the second-most wins in NHL history among coaches in their first 900 games (Scotty Bowman, 548).
"You're just fortunate to be in the league one game, let alone 900. And to be with the same organization with the same owner and same management, I couldn't have ever dreamt that this is the way it would go,” Cooper said. “It'd be a much happier night if we pulled it out, but I came to Tampa to perform a job and 900 games later, I'm in love with a city that I'm never gonna leave. It's been a phenomenal experience for myself and my family and hopefully I get a whole bunch more."
The Lightning led 2-0 after one period thanks to a pair of Brayden Point goals. The forward scored his 13th of the year 3:58 into play, roofing a backhand shot past Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren on a two-on-one with forward Jake Guentzel.
Point extended the Lightning lead with a power-play goal 12:25 into the first, and the home team held their 2-0 advantage into the second period.
Washington found their offense in the middle frame. Andrew Mangiapane scored for the Capitals on a delayed penalty call against the Lightning midway through the second period, and Aliaksei Protas scored on a shorthanded rush two minutes later to tie the game.
Lightning forward Mikey Eyssimont restored the Lightning lead with less than a minute left in the second, winning a battle behind the Washington net and tucking the puck inside the left post to score his second goal in as many games.
"They did a good job in the second kind of hemming us in on a couple of shifts that they capitalized on,” Point said of Washington’s response. “I think they found their legs and they started to tilt the ice. But then I thought we maybe had a little bit of a pushback, and then the third was just kind of back and forth."
Back-and-forth is a good description for the third period, which saw the Lightning and Point receive a gift from the visitors.
Lindgren left his net to play the puck outside his crease, and the goalie sent the puck into his own cage for a Lightning goal—one that completed the hat trick for Point, who touched the puck last in the defensive zone—while trying to slip it behind his net with 12:35 to play.
The Capitals weren’t rattled by the mistake, as defenseman John Carlson notched the game again at a 4-4 score with 9:30 to play on a snapshot from the right faceoff circle.
Cirelli looked like he had scored for the Tampa Bay lead with just over four minutes left, but it was Washington celebrating the eventual game-winner when Wilson deflected a point shot by Chychrun in the closing minutes.
Lightning captain Victor Hedman said Washington is a “great team”, adding the late swing and penalty is part of hockey sometimes.
“You want to kill those off, obviously. It’s just a battle in front and the stick gets up and obviously at the end of the day it’s a clear penalty and we’re not gonna say anything about that. But yeah, we’d love to kill those,” Hedman said. “But like I said, they’re a great team and they’ve played some really good hockey all year. We beat ‘em the first one and they got the second one. So now we just gotta regroup, and we got two here coming up, so just gonna take the positives and then look forward.”
The Lightning visit Nashville on Friday for a 3 p.m. game, and the Toronto Maple Leafs visit AMALIE Arena on Saturday.
Tampa Bay is now 11-8-2 on the year following Wednesday’s loss.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Brayden Point, TBL (3 Goals)
- Tom Wilson, WSH (GWG, Assist)
- Aliaksei Protas, WSH (SHG, Assist)
