WASHINGTON (WWSB) – Tampa Bay fell short in its quest to sweep a recent back-to-back road trip, falling to the Capitals in overtime on Tuesday night.
The Lightning struck first in the opening stanza, as Ryan McDonagh found Jake Guentzel on the inside edge 7:06 into the contest. Tampa would maintain the 1-0 lead into the second period.
Aliaksei Protas knotted things up at 1-1 in the second period at the 17:38 mark, but a deflection off the stick of Tampa’s Brayden Point from Vicktor Hedman up top on the power play gave the Lightning the one goal lead again early in the third.
A few minutes later, the Capitals answered on a power play goal of their own, with Tom Wilson the beneficiary off a long deflection.
Play would enter extras, where Washington won the opening face-off and didn’t look back. Jakob Chychrun scored the game-winner off the assist from Wilson 1:19 into overtime, without the Lightning having a possession in the extra frame.
“It’s tough man,” Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper said after the game.
“Cause, you know you can make mistakes in games, then make more mistakes than we did tonight and win games. And sometimes you make a couple and it doesn’t go your way. But we got better as a team this entire trip, and ultimately we played a back-to-back, got three-out-of-four points. (If) we did that all year I’d be loving it,” he added.
Some Lightning players echoed their coach’s sentiment.
“I’d say there’s quite a few positive points,” Lightning Defenseman J.J. Moser said.
“I’d say our performance over the whole sixty minutes was pretty decent. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get that second point, but that’s how it happens sometimes,” he added.
“Three-out-of-four is usually pretty good for a back-to-back,” Tampa Bay Forward Brayden Point said.
“But, I mean it’s so early in the season, but we’ve dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, and two wins would’ve been really big for us. But, I think there’s definitely positives we can take out of these two games, and move forward,” he added.
The Lightning have a few off days before heading into another back-to-back road trip to Detroit and Columbus on Friday and Saturday.
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