C’mon. You didn’t think this would be easy now did you? Even after the 4-1 lead in the first period? This is the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals. Nothing is easy. Especially in D.C. where the Lightning seemingly win once every administration. Heading into the night they had a whopping 18 wins in 62 trips to Capital One Arena. So, even with the big early lead, you knew it was going to be an interesting finish.

Sure enough, the Capitals clawed back to within a goal early in the third period, but a key stop by Jonas Johansson, who had 29 saves in his first career start against Washington, and a staunch penalty kill allowed the Lightning to hold the line. Anthony Cirelli eventually scored a huge insurance goal, and the Bolts held on for the win (despite not being able to find the empty net).

Adversity followed the Lightning all night, whether it was allowing an early goal to Justin Sourdif just 66 seconds into the game, down four forwards at one point, a complete inability to clear the puck, and then an ill-advised two-skater disadvantage while clinging to a one-goal lead. Yet, they found a way to hold on and win, and picked up two points.

After the early Sourdif goal, it looked like it might be the Lightning’s night as they scored short-handed (Brandon Hagel), on the power play (Oliver Bjorkstrand!), even-strength (Hagel, again), and on a breakaway (Nikita Kucherov) despite generating just six shots in the first period. That chased Logan Thompson after just 20 minutes.

From there, it was mostly Washington. Charlie Lindgren entered the game, but didn’t have to work all that hard as the Bolts tested him with just 10 shots over the final 40 minutes. The Caps would get one back early in the period when Jacob Chychrun wheeled from the boards and hurled a puck to the middle of the ice. Gage Goncalves was innocently standing at the top of the circle when the puck hit him and ricocheted past Johansson.

That might have been the best thing that happened in the period. Early in the period, the Lightning lost Kucherov after he collided with the officials shoulder after a hit from Tom Wilson. Kucherov did not return to the game. Late in the period, Rasmus Sandin sent Dominic James into the boards, knocking him out of the game for a short period. In two games against the Caps, James has been hit in the face with the puck and slammed face-first into the boards. He’s probably glad that the season series is over.

Following the hit, Coach Jon Cooper sent Curtis Douglas over the boards to challenge Tom Wilson. The big guy started off well, but Wilson’s experience won the fight. Unfortunately, the officials rang Douglas up for an instigator and a 10-minute misconduct, effectively ending his night.

Early in the third, Brayden Point skated one shift before heading down the tunnel. Luckily, James would return to the ice to give the Lightning another forward as they struggled to hold off the tide. It wasn’t a pretty start to the period as the Lightning did pretty much everything wrong for about 10 minutes. Let’s review the downward spiral:

Failed on a power play (granted Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov were hurt)

Allowed Alex Ovechkin, the only player in NHL history with 900 goals to get a breakaway (JoJo) stoned him

Failed to clear the puck three times in a 20-second span which led to a goal from Ethan Frank

Went short-handed 3-on-5 to a Capitals team that has Alex Ovechkin.

The long, two-skater disadvantage was the turning point in the period. Somehow, the Lightning killed it off (Johansson made some nice saves in traffic and Ovechkin dented the post with a one-timer) and it seemed to deflate the Caps just a little. Coach Cooper leaned on his top forwards in the final period sending Jake Guentzel (8:41 of ice time in the third), Hagel (9:13 of ice time), and Yanni Gourde (7:31 of ice time) over the boards seemingly on every other shift.

It paid off as the Lightning were able to minimize the Washington pressure and eventually picked up the insurance goal when Cirelli fought through a crowd of red jerseys to poke home a rebound off of Hagel’s shot. Hagel finished the night with 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) while Cirelli had 2 (1 goal, 1 assist).

It wasn’t a pretty win, in fact it was down right rage-inducing at times, but the Lightning found a way to pick up two points.