Game Recap – 12/14/2019 – Washington Capitals v. Tampa Bay Lightning

Washington Capitals (23-5-5 51pts) v. Tampa Bay Lightning (16-11-3 35pts)

 

Game Recap:

The Washington Capitals are back on the road, and they start their little road trip in Tampa Bay as they look to tame the Lightning. In the first period after facing some early pressure from the Lightning, the Capitals would force Tampa’s defense to make a mistake in their own zone and Nicklas Backstrom would net his sixth of the season to give the Capitals the 1-0 lead.

 

Then in the second period the Capitals would unravel as they would do a parade to the penalty box. While Capitals would kill the Lightning’s first opportunity of the period, the second go around would not be so good for the Capitals as Brayden Point would tie the game at one with his 12th of the season while on the powerplay. The Capitals would go back on the penalty kill two more times, and this time they would kill both penalties to keep the game tied at one.

 

Then in the third period the Capitals would strike fast and early as Lars Eller would net his seventh of the season less than two minutes into the period to retake the lead, then less than a minute later Garnet Hathaway would score his fifth of the season to grow the Capitals lead to two. However, later in the period Jan Ruuta would score his first of the season to get the Lightning back within one of the Capitals, but TJ Oshie would score on the wraparound to reclaim the Capitals two goal lead 63 seconds later. Tom Wilson would hit the empty net, and the Capitals would ground the Lightning 5-2.

 

Lineups:

Washington Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson

Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — T.J. Oshie

Carl Hagelin — Lars Eller — Richard Panik

Brendan Leipsic — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

Michal Kempny — John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen

Jonas Siegenthaler — Radko Gudas

Ilya Samsonov

Braden Holtby

Injured: None

Scratched: Travis Boyd

 

Tampa Bay Lightning:

Ondrej Palat — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn — Anthony Cirelli — Steven Stamkos

Pat Maroon — Cedric Paquette — Yanni Gourde

Carter Verhaeghe — Mitchell Stephens — Mathieu Joseph

Victor Hedman — Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev — Kevin Shattenkirk

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Curtis McElhinney

Injured: Tyler Johnson (lower body), Braydon Coburn (lower body)

Scratched: Luke Schenn

 

First Period:

WAS Goal – 6:42 – Nicklas Backstrom (6) from unassisted

TB Penalty – 12:23 – Jan Ruuta 2 minutes for Interfernce

WAS Penalty – 12:59 – Nicklas Backstrom 2 minutes for Tripping

TB Penalty – 17:12 – Steven Stamkos 2 minutes for High Sticking

 

End of 1st

 

Second Period:

WAS Penalty – 1:32 – Michal Kempny 2 minutes for Roughing

WAS Penalty – 5:03 – Nicklas Backstrom 2 minutes for Delay of Game

TB PPG – 5:45 – Brayden Point (12) from Alex Killorn (16) and Nikita Kucherov (24)

WAS Penalty – 8:20 – Alex Ovechkin 2 minutes for Tripping

WAS Penalty – 17:11 – TJ Oshie 2 minutes for Tripping

 

End of 2nd

 

Third Period:

WAS Goal – 1:58 – Lars Eller (7) from Richard Panik (1) and Dmitry Orlov (12)

WAS Goal – 2:43 – Garnet Hathaway (5) from Brendan Leipsic (6) and Radko Gudas (8)

TB Goal – 11:16 – Jan Ruuta (1) from Alex Killorn (17) and Yanni Gourde (10)

WAS Goal – 12:19 – TJ Oshie (14) from Jakub Vrana (14) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (20)

WAS ENG – 19:21 – Tom Wilson (12) from TJ Oshie (12) and Nicklas Backstrom (17)

 

End of 3rd

 

Next Up:

Washington (24-5-5 53pts) @ Columbus (12-14-6 30pts)

Tampa Bay (16-12-3 35pts) v. Ottawa (14-17-2 30pts)

 

Support our friend’s Kickstarter campaign for Star Con today!