It was an action-packed, aggressive battle between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington. After the Lightning took a 1-0 lead into the second period, Washington came back to tie it in the second and the third period started in a 1-1 tie and ended up ending in a 2-2 tie to give hockey fans in Washington some free hockey as the Lightning and Capitals had to determine a winner in overtime. But after just a couple minutes into overtime, the Capitals struck for the game-winning goal.
Jake Guentzel put a point in the score column for the Lightning with 12:54 left in the first period. He was assisted by Ryan McDonagh with his first assist of the year and Anthony Cirelli.
With the Lightning ahead 1-0 as the second period got under way, they held their ground for the first 18 minutes before the Capitals answered back and put a goal in the score column to tie it up 1-1 on a goal by Aliaskei Protas with assists from Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson.
Brayden Point scored his second goal of the year in the first :90 seconds of the third period on assists by Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov that put the Lightning back on top 2-1.
But the Capitals answered back just three minutes later to make it 2-2. It was Tom Wilson with the goal and assists by Dylan Strome and John Carlson.
As the game headed into extra hockey via overtime, the Capitals dominated the ice and ultimately, with 3:41 left in the overtime period, the Capitals struck to take the 3-2 win over the Lightning. It was a goal by Jakob Chychrun and assists by Wilson and Strome that sent the Lightning home on a heartbreaking defeat and handed them their third loss of the year as they continue to search for the offensive steam that they had during the preseason.
The Lightning on Tuesday were once-again out-shot by the Capitals. They had 28 shots on goal compared to Tampa’s 19. The Capitals also won 53.6 percent of the face offs compared to the Lightning winning just 46.4 percent, the Capitals had 23 hits, the Lightning only had eight. The Lightning gave the puck away 19 times, the Capitals turned it over five-times less at 14 giveaways as the Lightning continue to struggle offensively since the regular season began.
The Lightning now have a couple days off before they continue their road-trip with a Friday night matchup against the Detroit Red Wings, who are 2-1-0. It’s a 7:00 PM EDT puck drop at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.