Lightning hold serve in Washington, series tied
Vasilevskiy stands tall as Tampa prevails 4-2
WASHINGTON — Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaker with about eight minutes left, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and the Tampa Bay Lightning weathered the equivalent of more than a period without a shot on goal to edge the Washington Capitals 4-2 on Thursday night, evening the Eastern Conference final at two games apiece.
Killorn was left pretty much alone during a defensive breakdown by Washington and scored just six seconds after a Tampa Bay power play expired, putting in a pass from Ondrej Palat.
Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point scored Tampa Bay’s first two goals, and Anthony Cirelli added an empty-netter.
Washington’s goals came from Evgeny Kuznetsov — off an assist by Alex Ovechkin — and defenceman Dmitry Orlov.
The Lightning host Game 5 on Saturday night, with Game 6 back in Washington on Monday.
The road team has won every game in the series so far.
The Capitals, who eliminated the two-time reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, fell to 3-5 overall at home during these playoffs — and even got booed late in the first period, which ended with the Lightning ahead 2-1.
The Lightning won Game 4 despite going nearly 21 full minutes of game time — the last 10:41 of the first period, followed by the initial 10:11 of the second — without putting a single official shot on net. And they won even though the Capitals finally got back centre Nicklas Backstrom, who had missed four games with an injured right hand.