East final:

Lightning will strike back, coach says

BRANDON, FLA.— Jon Cooper is confident the Tampa Bay Lightning will be fine.

Experience tells the coach and his players they shouldn’t be overly concerned about losing the opening game of the Eastern Conference finals at home.

The way the Washington Capitals are playing, though, it could be more difficult to rebound from a shabby performance this time.

Game 2 is Sunday night, and Cooper expects the Atlantic Division winners to be at their best.

“It’s unfortunate how we played a couple of these Game 1s in the last couple of rounds, (and) dug ourselves a small hole this series,” the coach said after a workout Saturday at the team’s suburban practice facility.

“I guess the positive side is we’ve been here before, so we’ve seen this. But we can’t keep playing with fire and dropping these Game 1s, which we’ve done.”

The Capitals won the opener 4-2, ending an eight-game playoff losing skid to Tampa Bay dating to the 2003 post-season.

Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie, Jay Beagle and Lars Eller scored for Washington, while rejuvenated goaltender Braden Holtby stopped 19 shots.

“We dissected the game a little bit,” Cooper said. “There were so many good things we’ve done in two rounds of hockey that I think if you bottled up all the bad things in those first 10 games it would be about half of what we did in that one game last night.”