"Any time you're at the top of the standings, you get every team's best effort," Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said. "Teams aren't going to lay over in this league. They're going to play well. Sometimes it's a case of a team just playing well against us, but I thought tonight, everyone included, if it wasn't for [Vasilevskiy] it could have been a lot worse."
Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead at 1:22 of the first period on Namestnikov's power-play goal. Nikita Kucherov's shot from the right face-off circle deflected off Namestnikov's chest.
Grubauer entered the game 0-5-1 with a 3.86 goals-against average and an .876 save percentage.
"I was laughing. Here we go again. I was going right and it found its way in," Grubauer said. "The team did unbelievable. If we play like this the whole year, we are going to be really tough to beat. Everybody was working. Gaps were good. We didn't give a lot up and we blocked a bunch of shots. It was an awesome win."
Washington outshot Tampa Bay 16-3 during the final 13:28 of the first period. Ovechkin scored at 18:36 with a one-timer from the left face-off circle on a cross-ice pass from Tom Wilson. Nicklas Backstrom had the other assist and has one in three of his past four games, the past two back on a line with Ovechkin.
Smith-Pelly's go-ahead goal came after he drove the net following a drop pass to Beagle. The shot came off Vasilevskiy's pads and landed on Smith-Pelly's stick.
Grubauer was at his best with the game tied 1-1 in the second period, including a kick save on Ondrej Palat after a no-look centering pass from Alex Killorn at 7:26.
"It's just unfortunate the way it's been going for [Grubauer] at the beginning of the season," Beagle said. "But he's been standing on his head and playing unreal. He obviously deserves a big win. He was huge again tonight. Made some big saves at some big times."
