After winning two on the road, the Washington Capitals have now lost two at home, dropping Game Four – and also the series lead – to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a thoroughly frustrating night.
Dmitry Orlov kicked us off with a monster shot to beat Vasilevskiy high. Brayden Point struck back, exploiting a bad turnover from Michal Kempny, then Steven Stamkos kept Tampa’s power play nuclear hot to give the Bolts the lead after one.
Evgeny Kuznetsov was the hatchet man on a 200-foot play to tie the game in the second period, which the Caps dominated without any further goals.
The Caps kept pressing in the third until Lars Eller got busted for a hook. As time expired on his penalty, Alex Killorn put the puck through Holtby’s five hole to get a lead for the road team that survived to the final buzzer. Cirelli added an empty netter in garbage time.
Bolts beat Caps 4-2. The series is tied 2-2.
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) May 18, 2018
Gummy bear? They’ve been in my pocket. They’re real warm and soft. of the night
Okay. Welp.
We could look at it as a matter of the Caps blowing a two-game lead at home through an infuriating lack of discipline and an incompetent power play. We could look at it like that. That would not be un-true.
Or we could look at it like this: it’s a new series. The Caps will go back out on the road for a best-of-three. Win two games and you go to the Cup Finals. That sounds doable, and it’s got the added benefit of letting me not think about this game anymore.
Headline photo: Patrick Smith
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