The Tampa Bay Lightning kept the good times going as they scored twice in the third period to extend their winning streak to eight games with a 3-1 victory over the Washington Capitals. Mitchell Chaffee opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal, and Gage Goncalves scored a big insurance goal in the third period to keep the Bolts in the lead prior to Alex Ovechkin’s 31st of the season. Brandon Hagel sealed the win with an empty net goal to back Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 20 saves.
For a game between two of the league’s top offenses, it was a tightly-played game that offered few legitimate scoring sequences. The two teams combined for just 40 shots on goal and 50 scoring chances. Each team had three power-play opportunities (granted, Washington’s third was a mere 20 seconds long) and Tampa Bay was the only one to convert.
It appeared that Washington had the early lead when Jakob Chychrun’s shot eluded Vasilevskiy with Pierre-Luc Dubois made some contact with the goaltender. However, the Bolts challenged the play, not for goaltender interference, but for a high-stick infraction. The officials reviewed the play and agreed with the Lightning that Washington played the puck with a high stick prior to the goal which wiped it off of the board.
On their third power play of the period, Brayden Point’s shot from the high slot rebounded out to Mitchell Chaffee and the youngster found a minute bit of space inside the far post to record his eleventh goal of the season, and fourth on the power play.
Mitchell Chaffee (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
Both teams clamped down in the second period as they were only able to muster five high-danger chances between them. Even the shots that did test the goaltenders were easily dealt and didn’t lead to many second-chance opportunities. While the Capitals had 25 shot attempts in the second period, seven were blocked, and ten were forced wide by the defense. There just wasn’t much available in the center of the ice.
That trend continued into the second period until another unlikely goal-scoring source doubled the Lightning lead. After Washington was forced to dump the puck in from the neutral zone, Nick Paul lugged it into the offensive zone. He spied Gage Goncalves streaking into the slot and dished him the puck. Goncalves’ shot ticked inside the far post past a screened Logan Thompson to make it 2-0.
Gage Goncalves (Nick Paul) 2-0 Lightning
Goncalves second of the season proved to be an important one as, who else but Alex Ovechkin would get the Capitals on the board. The Lightning had defensed the entry fairly well and Zemgus Girgensons made a nice block on Matt Roy’s shot from the point. The puck came to Anthony Cirelli who wasn’t able to cleanly pass it out of the zone which allowed Roy to intercept it. Roy whiffed on his shot, and Brandon Hagel whiffed on clearing the loose puck.
Unfortunately, Alex Ovechkin didn’t whiff as he snapped a shot from the slot past his countryman, Vasilevskiy. It was his 884th career goal, leaving him just 11 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record.
Alex Ovechkin (Matt Roy) 2-1 Lightning
The goal came with just under four minutes to go, and Washington kept the pressure on, eventually pulling Thompson, who finished the day with 16 saves, for the extra attacker. That is Brandon Hagel’s time to shine, and the Bolt forward interrupted a pass in the neutral zone which allowed him to skate it in and flip home his 30th goal of the season.
Brandon Hagel (unassisted) Empty Net, 3-1 Lightning
The goals by Chaffee and Goncalves snapped some long goalless streaks for the Bolts’ depth forwards. Chaffee’s last goal came on February 6th while hadn’t found the back of the net since December 19th. A hallmark of the Lightning’s winning streak has been the emergence of scoring from outside the usual suspects, and today’s duo continued that trend.
For Hagel, he matched his career-high in goals, which he set back in the 2022-23 season. It was also his seventh empty-net goal of the season which ties him atop the league with Ovechkin and Mikko Rantanen. Nikita Kucherov picked up his 60th assist on the season as he joins Nate MacKinnon as the only players to break the 60-assist mark so far this year.
As for Vasilevskiy, well, we’ll let Lightning beat writer Ben Pierce have the final word:
Andrei Vasilevskiy wins his eighth straight game for the #GoBolts. His last 10 starts are something to behold: 9-0-1 .947 SV% 1.60 GAA 2 shutouts He’s even added 2 assists in that run!
— Benjamin Pierce (@boltsben.bsky.social) March 1, 2025 at 3:15 PM
[image or embed]
