WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning at their own game on Friday.
Dmitry Orlov scored 3:03 into overtime, and the Capitals used their special teams to rally for a 4-3 victory over the Lightning.
Orlov, Jakub Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov each had a goal and an assist for Washington, which trailed 3-1 after two periods. Alex Ovechkin tied the game with his team-leading 17th goal 11:36 into the third.
The Capitals went 2 for 2 on the power play and closed out a three-game homestand with five points. The Lightning went 1 for 4 with the man advantage, below their 32% average.
“We just got done talking about it — to win the special teams was important for us to be able to have success in this game,” Washington coach Todd Reirden said. “And we did.”
Brayden Point scored his 100th career goal and had an assist for Tampa Bay. Nikita Kucherov recorded three assists for the second time this season, but also picked up a penalty that helped set up Ovechkin's goal.
Mikhail Sergachev and Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning, who got captain Steven Stamkos back after he missed three games because of a lower-body injury.
Braden Holtby made 27 saves for Washington, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 31 stops for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning absorbed consecutive losses against St. Louis and Washington, two of the best teams in the NHL so far.
“I’ve liked our game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s just unfortunate we’ve just got only one point out of it from four.”
Orlov won the game with his second goal of the season. He got a pass from Kuznetsov at the blue line, faked as if he was trying to pass across the ice to Tom Wilson, and then fired a low shot inside the left post.
“I looked for the pass first — I saw that he was going far post,” Orlov said. “I think Vasilevskiy was maybe cheating a little bit.”
Vrana started Washington’s comeback when he beat Vasilevskiy from the right faceoff circle 3:45 into the third. Vrana’s 12th goal got the Capitals within one.
After Kucherov was whistled for a holding minor, Ovechkin took Vrana’s feed and rocketed a shot just inside the left post.
“All they need sometimes is one look and it’s in the back of the net,” Point said. “Obviously it stings, I thought we did a good job on the PK and disrupted their momentum. But they got one look and buried it.”
NOTES: Washington F T.J. Oshie had three assists. ... Kucherov leads Tampa Bay with 18 assists, one more than Victor Hedman, who picked up his 17th on Point’s opener. ... At 23 years and 261 days old, Point becomes the third-youngest Lightning player to reach the 100-goal milestone. ... Lightning D Braydon Coburn exited after the second period with a lower-body injury. ... To make room for Stamkos, the Lightning reassigned LW Cory Conacher to the minors. ... The Capitals scored multiple power-play goals for the first time since Oct. 29 … Holtby has started a season-high six consecutive games.
UP NEXT
Lightning: Host Carolina on Saturday.
Capitals: Open a four-game road trip at Detroit on Saturday.
