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Washington entered tonight’s game against the Lightning with a chance to lose back-to-back games for the first time in the 2015-2016 season. However, early offense from Jay Beagle and and Evgeny Kuznetsov kept that from occurring as Washington escaped Florida with a 2-1 victory.
First, here’s Saturday night’s Plus/Minus:
- Plus: The Capitals jumped onto of the Lightning early in the first despite getting outshot early. An early lead in the opponent’s building led to two points after sixty minutes.
- Minus: The Lightning pumped 36 shots against Braden Holtby, 16 more than the Capitals were able to produce.
Eight more notes on the game.
- Beagle got Washington on the board first barely two minutes into the game. A quick slam from outside the crease put the Capitals up one early.
- Stanislav Galiev picked up his second point of the season on Beagle’s opening tally. He picked up the puck with space in the corner and fired a quick shot on Bishop and the rebound was converted quickly.
- Tom Wilson avoided supplemental discipline for his hit against Brian Campbell on Thursday night and found himself in the middle of a tilt with Mike Blunden early in the first period. Blunden picked up the extra Roughing minor during the exchange in what became an advantage for the Capitals.
- Kuznetsov extended the lead to two a little more than halfway through the middle frame with a fantastic tuck into the shortside of the net behind Bishop.
- Shortly after that Nate Schmidt and J.T. Brown mixed it up behind Holtby. Not known as a fighter, both players held their own in the lightweight match-up with the edge going to Brown.
- A little more than eight minutes into the third period Nikita Kucherov fired a one-timed shot through Holtby’s glove hand to draw Tampa Bay back within one. The primary assist came from Anton Stralman and Kucherov made no mistake.
- Hotlby made 34 saves in the winning performance. He turned aside all but one Tampa Bay shot for his 18th win of the year.
- Justin Williams led Washington with five shots for the win in 16:58 of ice time.
Game highlights: