TAMPA — For the first time in more than three months, the Washington Capitals have won three straight games in regulation. Playoff hopes, however faint, are flickering. And with the March 8 trade deadline looming, they have found a level of consistency that has been absent most of the campaign.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena, but after seeing their two-goal lead evaporate in just 24 seconds early in the third period, the Capitals got back on top with a late game-winner from defenseman Rasmus Sandin to beat the Lightning, 5-3. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves on 32 shots for Washington, winning his second consecutive start. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 of 23 for Tampa Bay.
“We were just so composed. … It played out the way that you thought,” Coach Spencer Carbery said. “Even after giving up those two goals quickly, the composure on the bench, our next shifts after that, you could just tell it wasn’t a team that was rattled. It wasn’t a team that was going to let a couple bad scenarios determine our fate.”
For the first two periods, the Capitals were largely in control. In his return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the previous two games, winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel put the Capitals ahead just 2:30 into the first period.
Beck Malenstyn, Aube-Kubel’s fellow fourth-line winger, forced a turnover along the end boards with a heavy hit on defenseman Emil Lilleberg, and Aube-Kubel tracked down the puck as it slid toward the blue line. Once he corralled it, Aube-Kubel bounced the puck off the half-wall — around Tampa Bay center Anthony Cirelli — and back to himself before working in on Vasilevskiy and lifting a backhand over the netminder.
2 Comments
TAMPA — For the first time in more than three months, the Washington Capitals have won three straight games in regulation. Playoff hopes, however faint, are flickering. And with the March 8 trade deadline looming, they have found a level of consistency that has been absent most of the campaign.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena, but after seeing their two-goal lead evaporate in just 24 seconds early in the third period, the Capitals got back on top with a late game-winner from defenseman Rasmus Sandin to beat the Lightning, 5-3. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves on 32 shots for Washington, winning his second consecutive start. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 of 23 for Tampa Bay.
“We were just so composed. … It played out the way that you thought,” Coach Spencer Carbery said. “Even after giving up those two goals quickly, the composure on the bench, our next shifts after that, you could just tell it wasn’t a team that was rattled. It wasn’t a team that was going to let a couple bad scenarios determine our fate.”
For the first two periods, the Capitals were largely in control. In his return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the previous two games, winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel put the Capitals ahead just 2:30 into the first period.
Beck Malenstyn, Aube-Kubel’s fellow fourth-line winger, forced a turnover along the end boards with a heavy hit on defenseman Emil Lilleberg, and Aube-Kubel tracked down the puck as it slid toward the blue line. Once he corralled it, Aube-Kubel bounced the puck off the half-wall — around Tampa Bay center Anthony Cirelli — and back to himself before working in on Vasilevskiy and lifting a backhand over the netminder.
[Read the full story here, and skip the paywall with email registration.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/02/22/capitals-lightning-sandin-oshie/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Damn I made my peace with missing the playoffs, now they give me hope again.