Lightning 5 Capitals 4 OT (NHL)

[swamprat]

The Bolts continued to grind it out to the end of the season with their 6th win in a row, last night in Washington.

 

Washington jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Lars Eller goal after one period, but Nikita Kucherov scored a powerplay goal 1:19 into the second, followed 55 seconds later by a goal from Steven Stamkos. Anthony Cirelli gave the Bolts a 3-1 lead. Carl Haglin and T.J. Oshi tied the game, before Kuch scored his second goal of the game off an amazing pass play from Ondrej Palat and Steven Stamkos.

 

Evgeny Kuzentsov tied the game on a man advantage goal with 57 seconds left in regulation to send the game into OT. Then Victor Hedman did what Victor Hedman does best, win games in the extra session.

 

One would think Andrei Vasilevskiy had a terrible night, but he set a Tampa Bay record by making 54 saves. The Bolts might want to sure up that defense a little before the playoffs start.

[swamprat]

Speaking of that amazing pass play...

 

[neilman1234]

This was one of the best games I've seen all year in the NHL. It had everything. If you knew nothing about hockey and watched this one, you'd be an instant fan. The Caps threw 58 shots at Vasilevskiy (58!) and out shot the Lightning by 30 shots, yet Tampa, as usual, made the most of their shot attempts and cashed in a big road win. I'll pin the Caps loss on Ovechkin. As usual, he doesn't like to share his toys and wouldn't pass the puck with a prime opportunity in OT, which resulted in him falling down and Hedman taking his puck the length of the ice for the game winner.

 

The Bolts only need 5 more wins in their last 8 games to tie the 95-96 Red Wings for most wins in a season. My money is on them.