The Tampa Bay Lightning won a road game.
The Tampa Bay Lightning won a road game that went to overtime.
The Tampa Bay Lightning won a road game that went to overtime and they only scored one actual goal (they added the winner in a shootout).
The Tampa Bay Lightning won a road game that went to overtime and they only scored one actual goal (they added the winner in a shootout) and the goal didn’t involve Nikita Kucherov.
Luke Glendening scored in the first period while Brayden Point and Victor Hedman scored in the shootout to give the Lightning the 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals. The Lightning head into the break on a three-game winning streak and snap a two-game losing streak on the road. While neither goaltender had to make a ton of spectacular saves, both Andrei Vasilevskiy (32 saves) and Charlie Lindgren (19 saves) were strong in net.
The Bolts came out with a strong first period as their forecheck was disrupting the Capitals attempts at breaking the puck out cleanly and allowed Tampa Bay to keep their cycle going. They were able to put 11 shots on Lindgren in the period, which would be their high-water mark for the game. A rather tepid power play failed to score, but on the shift following it, Victor Hedman threw a puck at the net and Luke Glendening, who did not participate in the morning skate, deflected it home from the top of the slot.
From that point on, it was pretty much the Capitals that had the better run of play. They didn’t cave the Lightning in with shots, but did have a lot of the zone time. Both teams played tight defense and didn’t allow much sustained offense for most of the night. As for the Bolts, they struggled with their shot radar as they only put 9 of their 37 shot attempts over the last two periods and overtime on net.
In the second period, it was the Caps who tied it up as Nick Jensen fired a shot that was heading wide before it hit Anthony Mantha in the leg and deflected past Vasilevskiy to tie the game up at one goal a piece. It appeared that Washington would jump to the lead shortly after an egregious Conor Sheary turnover in the defensive zone, but a short review by the officials confirmed that Coach Cooper’s challenge for offside was correct. The goal was washed off the board.
The third period played out like you would imagine for two teams that were heading to a holiday break. There wasn’t much action either way with the two teams combining for a whopping 12 scoring chances over the final 20 minutes. Nick Paul almost pulled a win out in regulation as he swooped in on the rush, cut in front of Lindgren and tried to use his condor-like reach to tuck the puck in, but the Caps’ goalie got a toe on it to keep it out.
Overtime wasn’t super thrilling outside of a diving backcheck from Anthony Cirelli to save a prime scoring chance. Brandon Hagel had the puck on his stick and attempted a wraparound in the dying seconds. Lindgren dove across the crease and jammed his hand against the post. As play went down the ice (and the horn sounded) he had his glove off and was in obvious distress.
He stayed in for the shootout, though and made a couple of nice saves. He couldn’t stop Point or Hedman and the Lightning had the win.
The Lines
The Goals
Luke Glendening (Victor Hedman) 1-0 Lightning
Anthony Mantha (Nick Jenson, Aliaksei Protas ) 1-1
