Lightning win in shootout, end losing streak

TAMPA -- Ben Bishop made 34 saves, and Brian Boyle scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of the shootout to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win against the Washington Capitals at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning (14-11-1), who ended a four-game losing streak.
"This [win] was huge," said Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman, who got his 14th assist on Kucherov's goal. "Especially the way we played too. That was encouraging. The effort, the compete level, the desperation … everything was outstanding tonight, and we need to keep building on it. I thought the [penalty kill] was outstanding, and Bishop was great in net."

WATCH: All Capitals vs. Lightning highlights
Nicklas Backstrom scored for Washington (13-7-3), which is 0-2-1 in its past three games. Braden Holtby made 32 saves.
"I think there were two very desperate teams that played quite well," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "I thought both goaltenders were very good. I thought our power play scored a huge goal when we needed it. I thought the guys played with pace. It was a fast game."
Tampa Bay's Brayden Point and Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in the shootout. After Boyle beat Holtby with a wrist shot through the five-hole, Bishop made a save on Marcus Johansson in the bottom half of the fourth round to win the game.
"I tried to come down with some speed," Boyle said. "Try to use my reach a little bit and open up the hole."
Kucherov gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 12:38 of the second period when he scored on the power play. He beat Holtby with a one-timer from above the right faceoff circle for his 13th goal.
The Capitals tied it 1-1 at 6:24 of the third period when Backstrom scored on the power play. His wrist shot from above the right faceoff circle went past Bishop's glove for his seventh goal.
"We wanted two points but I thought we did a good job in the third period," Backstrom said. "We battled back to tie the game. We had the opportunities [to win] but we couldn't do it."

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Goal of the game

Boyle said his decision to go to the five hole in the shootout is a move he works on often. Bishop said Boyle tries it on him during practices. "Boyle works on it quite a bit and he's pretty good so it's nice to finally see him get rewarded," Bishop said.

Save of the game

Holtby made a blocker save on Kucherov on a breakaway at 6:02 of the second period. Kucherov raced up the ice to catch up with the puck in front of Holtby after Ondrej Palat flipped it high from the Tampa Bay zone into the Washington zone.

Unsung moment of the game

Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin retrieved a loose puck and kept it in the Capitals zone to set up the sequence that led to Kucherov's goal.

Highlight of the game

The Capitals had a 4-on-3 power play in the final 33.5 seconds of overtime after the Lightning were called for too many men on the ice. Bishop made a save on a slap shot from Carlson with less than eight seconds remaining, and after the Capitals won a faceoff in the Lightning zone, Justin Williams had a backdoor chance in front of the net, but his shot went wide as time expired.

They said it

"We know we've got to score some more 5-on-5 [goals], it's not like we're not trying. We started playing with some pace. We always have lots of zone time, but we've got to make sure we're hitting the net. Just keep going in the right direction here. Play the right way and we've got a team that can get some points every night." -- Capitals coach Barry Trotz
"A lot of times when you've lost a couple in a row, it's worrisome if you're not playing well. We just went through a spurt where weren't playing that well. But you could see it come together [in a 5-4 loss at the St. Louis Blues on Thursday] and we didn't get the result that we wanted, but we could build on them. So we just had a good feeling about just carrying that into tonight." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

Bishop is 2-6-1 in his career against the Capitals. … Tampa Bay held Washington forward Alex Ovechkin without a point for the second time in their past seven games.

What's next

Capitals:Host the Buffalo Sabres on Monday (7 p.m. ET, CSN-DC, MSG-B, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FS-CR, SUN, NHL.TV)