Too little, too late for Capitals in Game 5 loss
Tampa Bay one win away from reaching NHL final
TAMPA, FLA. – It was vintage Alex Ovechkin, a left faceoff circle one-timer that had so often injected life into his Washington Capitals. The problem was that there was just 1:36 left in the game. The Capitals returned to their bench for a brief timeout, a conference for the final push of the game. It was all too little and much too late.
Washington fell into an early hole, and the team never climbed out of it in a 3-2 Game 5 loss. Now the Capitals face another deficit, down three-games-to-two in this Eastern Conference final. After winning the first two games of the series, they’ve now lost three straight, one loss away from the season ending.
Twenty-one teams have won the first two games of a best-of-seven conference final or Stanley Cup final on the road in the past 50 years. All 21 went on to win the series. None of those series lasted more than six games, and if Washington advances, it will have to be with a Game 7 in Tampa Bay.
But before the Capitals can get there, they’ll have to reconcile how they all started this game so poorly, three goals in the first 21 minutes, considering how pivotal this Game 5 was.
Down two goals after an abysmal first period, Washington dug itself into a bigger hole by allowing the Lightning’s fourth line a goal 33 seconds out of intermission. Defenseman Anton Stralman skated up the ice and drove the net. Winger Ryan Callahan crashed the net, and the rebound from Stralman’s shot went off Callahan’s glove to get past goaltender Braden Holtby. That gave the Lightning a 3-0 lead, and Tampa Bay had twice struck in the opening minute of a period.
The Lightning’s fourth line had combined for two points between center Cedric Paquette, Chris Kunitz and Callahan. By the end of the game, the trio had two goals, and matched up against Ovechkin, those three held him to without a single shot on goal through two periods.
The Capitals were positive as the series returned to Amalie Arena. Coach Barry Trotz said he felt his team had been the better one in three out of the four games. As the team took the ice for Thursday’s morning skate, players laughed and joked around, seemingly loose. Washington entered Game 5 with a 7-1 record on the road. The Capitals had won their first two games in Tampa Bay thanks to fast starts, an element that was missing on Saturday.
After goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy arguably stole the last game for his Lightning with a 36-save performance, his teammates responded around him with a dominant first period in Game 5. Just 19 seconds in, Paquette scored when some sloppy neutralzone play by the Capitals allowed a two-on-one. Paquette intercepted defenseman Dmitry Orlov’s pass to center Evgeny Kuznetsov to create the turnover, and Paquette was all alone as Callahan fed him the puck at the edge of the left faceoff circle.
Orlov was involved in Tampa Bay’s second goal, too. He was carrying the puck at the Lightning’s offensive blueline with Steven Stamkos dropped him, arguably a trip that went uncalled. Orlov lost the puck, and Nikita Kucherov got it to setup Ondrej Palat, who used a kneeling Matt Niskanen as a screen on Holtby. That gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead 9:04 into the first period, injecting confidence into a Tampa Bay team that had struggled in this building during the first two games of the series.
Things got worse for the Capitals when forward Brett Connolly took an offensivezone holding penalty 11:49 into the frame, putting a Lightning power play on the ice that went 6 for 14 in the first four games. Washington managed to kill off the infraction, but coming out of that power play, the Capitals had just two shots on goal with no shots from forwards. The team finished with four shots, and T.J. Oshie’s wrister 55 feet away from the net was the only shot from a forward in the opening 20 minutes.
After Callahan’s goal extended the Lightning’s lead to three goals less than a minute into the second period, that seemed to jolt the Capitals. Trotz flipped centers Nicklas Backstrom and Kuznetsov, moving Backstrom to the line with Ovechkin and right wing Tom Wilson. Less than five minutes into the period, Kuznetsov tipped a Niskanen point shot to trim Tampa Bay’s lead. Washington then started to control play, but the team didn’t get rewarded with a goal – or a power play – for that.
The two-goal deficit proved too much to overcome in the third period, and for the first time this postseason, the Capitals are on the brink of elimination. TAMPA BAY 3, WASHINGTON 2 GAME 1: Washington 4-2 GAME 2: Washington 6-2 GAME 3: Tampa Bay 4-2 GAME 4: Tampa Bay 4-2 Saturday: TAMPA BAY 3-2 Monday: at Washington, 8 x-Wednesday: at Tampa Bay, 8 VEGAS 3, WINNIPEG 1 GAME 1: WINNIPEG 4-2 GAME 2: Vegas 3-1 GAME 3: VEGAS 4-2 GAME 4: VEGAS 3-2 Sunday: at Winnipeg, 3 x-Tuesday: at Vegas, 9 x-Thursday: at Winnipeg, 8