Lightning defeat Capitals, set their record for wins

TAMPA -- The Tampa Bay Lightning set their records for wins and points in a season with a 6-3 victory against the Washington Capitals at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Alex Killorn got his first NHL hat trick for Tampa Bay (55-13-4), which surpassed the 54 wins and 113 points it had last season.
"It's great to be honest, breaking those records are nice to do," Killorn said. "But it really doesn't mean much. We just want to keep improving to put ourselves in the best spot in the Stanley Cup] Playoffs."
***[WATCH: [All Capitals vs. Lightning highlights]*
Nikita Kucherov had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for his 14th win in his past 17 starts for Tampa Bay, which leads the Boston Bruins by 19 points for first place in the Atlantic Division.
The Lightning have 10 games remaining and could become the third NHL team to win 60 games in a season (Detroit Red Wings, 62-13-7 in 1995-96; Montreal Canadiens 60-8 with 12 ties in 1976-77).

Alex Ovechkin scored two goals for the Capitals (42-23-7), who are 8-2-0 in their past 10 games and lead the New York Islanders by two points for first in the Metropolitan Division.
Washington fell behind 2-0 at 10:33 of the first period.
"You have a start like that against a team, a high-caliber team, they can get away," Washington forward T.J. Oshie said. "That's what it was, we were chasing from behind the rest of the time and it was all mental errors, things we can clean up. They got the best of us in the first there, and it was a pretty good battle from there on out."

Tyler Johnson gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 8:35 when he scored off a pass from Brayden Point.
Killorn scored unassisted with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle to make it 2-0 at 10:33 after Anthony Cirelli forced a turnover by Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen.
"It was a hard-fought battle, we knew who we were up against," Cirelli said. "They are a strong, heavy team, and we wanted to try to match them."
John Carlson made it 2-1 at 12:06, but Killorn scored his second goal of the night at 15:56 to give Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead.
After the Lightning failed to score on a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:48, Vasilevskiy made a save against Lars Eller on a 2-on-1 rush at 1:05 of the second period, two seconds after the second Capitals penalty expired.
Ovechkin scored on the power play to make it 3-2 at 7:33. It was Ovechkin's 246th power-play goal, tying him with Phil Esposito for fifth in NHL history.
Erik Cernak made it 4-2 at 2:45 of the third period.

Ovechkin scored his second of the game and NHL-leading 48th of the season at 12:56 to get the Capitals to within 4-3.
Vasilevskiy saved two open shots by Carlson from the slot at 18:46 and 18:56.
Killorn completed the hat trick when he scored into an empty net at 19:13 to make it 5-3. Yanni Gourde scored a second empty-net goal with less than a second remaining for the 6-3 final.
"It felt good, especially when the third goal seals the victory a little bit," Killorn said. "There's [47] seconds left, but to go up two goals ahead at that point, it felt pretty good."
Braden Holtby made 29 saves on 33 shots for the Capitals.
It was the first game between Tampa Bay and Washington since Holtby made 29 saves in a 4-0 win in Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Final.
"We found last year if we were able to manage the puck and not give them easy transition offense, then we'd give ourselves a really good chance," said Capitals coach Todd Reirden, who was an assistant to Barry Trotz for the Stanley Cup champions. "We didn't do that in the first, and then we didn't have enough guys play to the top of their game tonight."

They said it

"You can tell it got a little nasty there at times. A lot of scrums, which I think is awesome. It's fun to play in these games. They had a lot of emotion, we had a lot of emotion. So it was a good one, it was a fun one … little bit of a playoff atmosphere." -- Capitals forward T.J. Oshie
"It's two first-place teams going at it, and you would expect the games to be good. We'll get them in their building [Wednesday], and it will be different, it will be Round 2 under different circumstances." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"Washington tried to come at us a little bit harder with the physicality. They have some guys who can play that way, but so do we. We feel we can answer any bell, and I think we did that tonight." -- Lightning forward Tyler Johnson

Need to know

Ovechkin has 655 goals, one shy of tying Brendan Shanahan for 13th in NHL history. ... The Lightning would have clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference had the Bruins lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets in regulation. Boston won 2-1 in overtime. ... Kucherov has 36 points (13 goals, 23 assists) in the past 17 games. His 117 points lead the NHL. ... Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh had one assist and was plus-4 in 22:54.

What's next

Capitals: At the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, SUN, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV)