Bolts Drop Game to Caps in Overtime; Snag Three of Four Points in Back-to-Back

Jacob Chychrun scores the game winning goal 1:19 into overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 3-2 win. The Tampa Bay Lightning never trailed tonight in the nation's capital until the Washington defensemen snuck in back door on a slick feed across the crease by Tom Wilson.

Tampa opened the scoring at the 7:06 mark of the first period when Ryan McDonagh set up Jake Guentzel with a sweet shot pass cross ice to beat Logan Thompson as he went post to post. Guentzel with great instinct was able to put the puck back across Thompson before he even knew a shot was on goal.

The pace in this game was feverish. Both teams went end to end quickly; exchanging shots off the post and two on one fast breaks. The Capitals were finally able to knot things at 1-1 with an Aliaksei Protas goal with 2:22 remaining in the middle frame. Protas had a great shot that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy top shelf off of a drop pass by Connor McMichael from below the red line.

This game's version of Vasilevskiy looked more like the Vasy of old. More like last season's Lightning goaltender who had a .921 save percentage. Team defense as a whole was better, and JJ Moser had a lot to do with it. With this being only his second game back since serving a two-game suspension to start the regular season, Moser has seemed to have found a snarl we have yet to see from him in the Blue and White.

Heading into the third period, Tampa was carrying over a power play from an Alex Ovechkin slash against the aforementioned Moser; and they took full advantage. Brayden Point potted his second goal of the season off of a tip-in from a Victor Hedman shot from the point to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead with 18:37 remaining in regulation.

It only took Tom Wilson and his Capital cronies 3:33 to tie things up at 2-2. Wilson had a tip on a power play the same as Point had a few minutes prior, redirecting a Dylan Strome wrist shot past Vasy.

A pair of matching roughing calls against both teams took place 5:22 into the third period resulting in Curtis Douglas and Conor Geekie heading to the box for the Lightning while Chychrun and Trevor Van Riemsdyk headed to the sin bin for the Capitals.

Heading into overtime, Tampa really never had puck possession, making it difficult for the Lightning to have a chance to capture their second point of the night. Chychrun made a great play jumping up on the play and parking himself right next to Vasy's crease as he waited for Tom Wilson to wheel around the back of the net.

All things considered, coming away with three out of four points on this road trip back-to-back is promising (especially after seeing this past week's performances at home.) The Lightning will be back at it on Friday as they open up another back-to-back starting with the Detroit Red Wings.