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Washington Capitals Suffer 6-3 Defeat to Lightning

ByMichael Marzzacco|
TAMPA, FL - MARCH 16: of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates against the Washington Capitals in the first period at Amalie Arena on March 16, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Casey Brooke Lawson/NHLI via Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - MARCH 16: of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates against the Washington Capitals in the first period at Amalie Arena on March 16, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Casey Brooke Lawson/NHLI via Getty Images)

In one of the most highly anticipated games of the regular season, the Washington Capitals fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3. They’ll meet again soon enough, and by soon I mean this week in D.C.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, their high powered offense, was just too much for the Washington Capitals to overcome. At least for one game though. They’ll meet again this week at Capital One Arena in just their second meeting this season. But on Saturday the Lightning came in with a chip on their shoulder.

The last time the Capitals were on that ice, they had punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals. There was happiness and joy for one fanbase. For the other? Just silence. Those fans that were silent on that late May night showed no silence of the sort in that 6-3 win.

The Bolts wasted no time. They struck, no pun intended, twice to go up 2-0 early. The first came from Tyler Johnson at 8:35 while the latter came from Alex Killorn at 10:33.

John Carlson got the Capitals on the board at 12:06 when he buried a one-timer from Evgeny Kuznetsov. It was Carlson’s 12th of the season.

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That momentum was short-lived for Washington. Killorn got his second goal of the game at 15:56 to go back up 3-1. That would be the score after the first 20 minutes. The Lightning outshot the Capitals 16-9 in the opening period.

In the second period the Capitals went to the power play for the second time at 5:59. Unlike the previous time, which occurred in the first period, the Capitals actually converted. Who else but Alex Ovechkin for his 47th of the season? Ovechkin was in the right place at the right time at the office for the rebound past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

With the power play goal Ovechkin scored, he tied Phil Esposito for the most power play goals in NHL history with 246. He needs just one more. It would be 3-2 after two periods which was a much better period for the Capitals. They outshot the Lightning 13-5.

In the third, the Bolts went back up 4-2 at 2:45 with a goal from Erik Cernak. Then Ovechkin got his second of the game at 12:56 as he banged home another rebound, this time from a shot by Dmitry Orlov. With 48 goals on the season, Ovechkin leads the entire NHL.

4-3 was the closest the Capitals would get. After Braden Holtby was pulled for an extra attacker the Bolts put it away with two empty netters. First, Killorn completed the hat trick with 47 seconds left then Yanni Gorde added a goal of his own to seal the 6-3 win.

The Capitals will look to bounce back on Tuesday night in New Jersey in their last stop on the four-game road trip.

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