Hagel Leads Surging Bolts towards Breaking Eastern Division Bottleneck

Photo Credit: Alyssa Shimko| Thunderstruck Sports

The bottleneck continues in the NHL's Eastern Conference. Coming into today, just 6 points separated the top teams from the cellar dwellers. Several of those 16 teams faced off against each other today, including the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning. Just one point separated these two teams in the standings with both having played 14 games. Earlier this season, these two clubs battled it out in Washington where the Capitals pulled out an overtime win.

Firsts in the First

The Bolts had some early looks in the opening minutes tonight, but it was the Capitals who broke the ice with the first goal of the night. Brandon Duhaime tallied his first of the season right around the 4-minute mark.

Two minutes later, the Lightning returned the favor as Emil Lilleberg notched his first of the season to tie it up at 1-1.

The Power Play Clicks

Fourteen minutes into the period, Tampa Bay got its first power play opportunity of the night. The Lightning power play has really struggled as of late but showed some signs of life during their last game in Vegas. That improvement continued tonight as the captain, Victor Hedman, blasted a shot from the point, and Jake Guentzel was positioned just perfectly in front of the net to tip it in.

The Tying Trickle

The second period moved along without much incident until the dying minutes. At 16:49, Jack Finley got hurled into the Capitals' net and a skirmish ensued. The result was four on four hockey for 2 minutes. Seconds later, John Carlson carried the puck in and fired it on net. Andrei Vasilevskiy made the save, but the puck then began to trickle away and in behind him. Defenseman Erik Cernak rushed in to try to stop the puck from crossing the line. Unfortunately, his stick ended up tipping the puck just past the goal line to tie the game. Through 40 minutes, this one was all knotted up.

Breaking the Bottleneck

The teams continued to battle in the third. Both needed the two points to try to break through the Eastern Conference bottleneck. The Lightning struck first in the third period. The red-hot Brandon Hagel rifled home his 7th of the season. The new guys, Dominic James and Charle-Edouard D'Astous, assisted on the go-ahead goal.

The Lightning clung to their narrow lead for most of the period. They thought they had extended that lead in the last minute. The Bolts went on the power play and the Capitals pulled their goalie in favor of the extra attacker. Kucherov hit the empty net to give the Lightning a 4-2 lead with 14.2 second remaining. Washington challenged that Kuch had been offside. The Capitals won the challenge. It was a frantic final 15 seconds, but the Bolts did hang on to win this one in regulation by a 3-2 final score.

(Of note, stalwart defenseman Ryan McDonagh left the game in the second period after blocking a shot and did not return.)

Ground Gained in Bottleneck

With many of the Eastern Conference games in the books for tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning move into third place in the Atlantic Division with 18 points (15 games-- .600 points percentage). The Montreal Canadiens lead the division with 22 points (15 games-- .733 points percentage). The surprising yet streaky Boston Bruins are in second with 20 points (17 games -- .588 points percentage).

The upstart Detroit Red Wings dropped down to the

first wildcard spot today. They are tied with the Bolts for points and games played, but the Bolts hold the tiebreaker edge with more regulation wins.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators are both just a point behind with 17 points through 15 games (.567 points percentage).

This is one tight division early in the season!

Three Stars

1- Brandon Hagel-- game winning goal, 1 assist

2- Jake Guentzel-- 1 goal, 1 assist

3- Charle-Edouard D'Astous-- 2 assists with honorable mention to Emil Lilleberg for his first goal of the season.

Up Next

The Bolts will finish up this brief two-game homestand with a matchup against another of the Eastern Conference bottleneck teams, the New York Rangers, on Wednesday, November 12th at 7pm. The Lightning will have their hands full as the Rangers have struggled at home this season but been a near-perfect road team.