But it’s enough to knock Caps out of first place
The Winter Classic was an enthralling experience, a memory that will last a lifetime for the Capitals players fortunate enough to participate. But Tuesday night’s showdown with the Tampa Bay Lightning was actually a bigger game. Winning your division, after all, is the first goal of any NHL contender and first place in the Southeast Division was on the line at Verizon Center.
So two skilled teams put together an entertaining 60-minutes of hockey replete with scoring chances, quality goaltending and strong penalty kills. In the end, they needed extra time for a result and Tampa Bay forward Martin St. Louis won it for his team with an overtime goal at 2:54, the only one scored in a 1-0 contest.
While the Caps (23-12-6, 52 points) were at the center of the hockey world over the weekend the Lightning (24-11-5, 53 points) were trading for 41-year-old goalie Dwayne Roloson to solidify their struggling goaltending situation. In his Tampa Bay debut Roloson stopped all 34 Washington shots, besting 22-year-old Semyon Varlamov, who finished with 37 saves in the other net.
“We just didn’t find a rhythm. We didn’t get rebounds,” Caps forward Alex Ovechkin said. “Defense played great and [Roloson] made unbelievable saves a couple of times.”
| Caps notes |
| » Washington last lost a 1-0 game on March 2, 2004 against the Florida Panthers. This was the franchise’s first 1-0 loss in overtime. |
| » The Caps have allowed just 14 goals in their last nine games. |
| » After killing all three Tampa Bay power-play opportunities, Washington has killed 60 of its last 68 penalties. |
Tampa Bay jumped into first place in the Southeast Division by one point over the Caps, who had entered the game 5-1-2 in their previous eight games. Any doubts that the division race will be a tight one throughout this season are quickly dissipating. Tuesday’s game was the exact halfway point of the season. That made the loss sting even more for a Washington team that won the Southeast by 38 points in 2009-10 and by 11 points the season before that.
“I think we played well defensively as a group tonight,” Caps forward Matt Hendricks said. “I don’t think our legs were there to get in on the forecheck and do the little things necessary to put pucks in the back of the net.”
That showed early when Tampa Bay outshot Washington 10-3 through the first 15 minutes of play. Roloson made a handful of quality saves early to keep the game scoreless, including a stop on a charging John Carlson and another on Ovechkin.
“[Tampa Bay is] a pretty good team,” Ovechkin said. “They have a good lineup. It’s tough team to play against.”
