The Washington Capitals are in Florida, but not for spring break. They’re taking on Eastern Conference rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.
The Capitals sit six points out of the last playoff spot in the East and trail the Lightning, who own the first wild card spot, by seven.
Spencer Carbery will turn to Charlie Lindgren in net while Nicolas Aube-Kubel will return to the lineup.
Tonight’s game is airing on ESPN. Steve Levy and Ray Ferraro have the call. Puck drop is shortly after 7 pm. It’s Star Wars night at Amalie Arena.
Lines
Washington Capitals
Capitals scratches: Alex Alexeyev and Pierrick Dube.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Tunnel weirdness
OOOOOOOO
a chicken parm sounds kinda good right now ngl#ALLCAPS | @CaesarsSports pic.twitter.com/EVbAoKtc1P
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 22, 2024
1st Period
Charlie Lindgren will oppose Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. Mantha-McMichael-Wilson and TVR-Carlson get the start.
TJ Oshie has a semi-breakaway. He dekes Vasilevskiy but the Lightning goaltender goes to the splits to stop him incredibly with the left leg.
🚨 1-0 Capitals. Nicolas Aube-Kubel with an unbelievable individual play, grabbing a loose puck from Nikita Kucherov in the Capitals offensive zone. He curled at the blue line, passed the puck off the boards back to himself, and then deked around another Lightning defender for an an incredible goal on his backhand. Highlight-reel quality! Time of goal 2:30. Beck Malenstyn authored the hit that created all that chaos.
NAK’s goal marks the third straight game the Caps have scored in first five minutes.
Michael Sgarbossa draws a holding penalty on Michael Eyssimont at 4:22. The Capitals have the first power play of the game.
Beck Malenstyn nearly scores in front of the net. He’s skating hard and doling out huge hits. Great start for him.
Nick Jensen to the box for holding Victor Hedman at 12:26. The Lightning to their first PP.
🚨 2-0 Capitals. Connor McMichael scores from the slot after Tom Wilson finishes Haydn Fleury hard into the boards and creates a turnover. It’s McMichael’s 11th of the season and comes at 16:19. He’s got three goals in his last two games.
Fleury was injured on the Wilson hit and is down the tunnel.
Taylor Raddysh beats Lindgren clean but the shot rings off the crossbar.
The Lightning are outshooting the Capitals 10 to 8 and out-attempting Washington 20 to 13 at five-on-five.
2nd Period
Puck is dropped.
Pretty quiet period to start.
Lightning whistled for too many men at the 5:53 mark.
🚨 2-1 Capitals. Brandon Hagel scores from the slot as Dylan Strome is slow to get back on defense. Caps’ first line does not have its legs tonight.
🚨 3-1 Capitals. Anthony Mantha scores on a three-on-one break after a perfect sauce pass by Dylan Strome that goes right on his tape. That’s about as beautiful a goal you’ll see in hockey on an odd-man break. Wow. It’s Mantha’s 18th of the season. Time of goal 12:14.
Aliaksei Protas takes a puck off the visor and is down. After a bit, he skates off on his own power.
Dylan Strome to the box for slashing at 17:27.
Through two, the Capitals are outshooting the Lightning 19 to 18 and out-attempting Tampa 30 to 26 at five-on-five.
3rd Period
🚨 3-2 Capitals. Nick Paul peels around Ethan Bear down the right wing and scores on a breakaway. Time of goal 2:42.
🚨 3-3 tie. Tyler Motte scores in front of the net. That’s two goals by the Lightning in 24 seconds. Terrible turnover by Rasmus Sandin behind the net as he tries to exchange with Max Pacioretty who bobbles the puck away. Time of goal 3:06.
Dylan Strome scores after deflecting a slap pass home, but Anthony Mantha entered the offensive zone offside. After a Coach’s Challenge by Jon Cooper, the goal is overturned.
TJ Oshie fell spectacularly.
Dylan Strome to the box for tripping Brandon Hagel at 9:25.
Caps kill off the power play. Five seconds afterward, Brandon Hagel takes a high-sticking penalty on Connor McMichael at 11:30.
TJ Oshie is injured and struggling to get up at the 11:54 mark. He curled off in the offensie zone and appears to be favoring his back.
TJ Oshie suffers non-contact injury, leaves Lightning game in third period bent over in pain
🚨 4-3 Capitals. Rasmus Sandin with a huge goal to give the Caps the lead, making up for his previous gaffe earlier in the night. What a feed from Aliaksei Protas!
🚨 5-3 Capitals. Connor McMichael scores an empty-net goal with Nick Jensen netting the primary assist. McMike now has two consecutive multi-goal games.
Another very solid game by the Capitals. They are finding a real identity with this current roster — which is coming at a very confusing time because they should probably be sellers, but who wants to break up this team??????
The Lightning outshot the Capitals 30 to 24 and out-attempted them 42 to 36 at five-on-five.
Read the RMNB recap:
Capitals get hit but keep getting back up in big road win in Tampa: Capitals beat Lightning 5-3
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