The Tampa Bay Lightning looked rather sluggish in the opening period against the Washington Capitals, especially in the first few minutes of the period. Tampa Bay continued their struggles taking penalties when Victor Hedman took a penalty for holding at 1:42.
The Capitals converted on that man advantage with Troy Brouwer’s tic-tac-toe play in the slot, making it a 1-0 game at 2:40. Mathieu Perrault and Niklas Backstrom had the assists on the Brouwer goal.
After the goal, Tampa continued to spend too much time in their own zone. Washington had seven shots at one point while Tampa Bay registered failed to register a shot until 6:51 of the first period.
Almost midway through the first period, the Lightning were able to get through the neutral zone and spend time in the offensive zone. Then, Marty St. Louis had multiple chances on Capitals net minder Brayden Holtby in the front of the net. Finally, St. Louis chipped one in at 8:23 to make it a 1-1 game. St. Louis’s goal was his first in 11 games. He has four on the season with three of them coming against Washington.
The Lightning had more scoring chances towards the end of the first period including Teddy Purcell’s wrist shot with 17:02 left. But, Holtby denied Purcell to keep the game tied.
The first period was also a physical one between the two teams. Tampa Bay had 11 hits while Washington had five.
At the end of the first period, The Capitals held the advantage in shots with 12 compared to the Lightning’s 6.
