Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel reached the 30-goal plateau by scoring in his fourth straight game, and the Lightning extended the Eastern Conference’s longest winning streak to eight with a 3-1 showing against the host Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon.
In a matchup between the NHL’s two highest-scoring clubs in goals per game, Hagel potted one into an empty net as the Lightning moved to 9-0-1 in their past 10 games and 10-1-4 against the Metropolitan Division.
Mitchell Chaffee had a power-play tally and Gage Goncalves hit the net for the second time this season. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 21 shots to go to 9-0-1 in his past 10 starts.
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin notched his 31st tally late in the match, and goalie Logan Thompson made 16 saves in the team’s third straight regulation loss.
Early in the first meeting in the nation’s capital, Washington’s Jakob Chychrun scored on a long shot, but Tampa Bay challenged for a high-sticking infraction 15 seconds prior by the defenseman. The officials removed the tally after reviewing the play and seeing Chychrun clip the puck with a high stick and then touch it.
On its third man advantage, Tampa Bay went up 1-0 when Chaffee found a rebound off Brayden Point’s shot and beat Thompson at 17:11 of the first period — one in which the visitors held a 10-5 shot advantage.
The home side produced the only full power play in the second period but could not score. In the frame’s final minutes, Thompson denied Hagel’s back-door chip attempt, but Vasilevskiy answered with a save on Matt Roy’s one-timer as he crashed in from the right circle.
During the third, a trailing Goncalves snapped a high shot — the club’s first in the period — on the glove side that got by Thompson at 6:08 for a two-goal lead.
With 3:59 remaining, Ovechkin capitalized on a broken play to sweep in goal No. 884 of his career and spoil Vasilevskiy’s bid for a second straight shutout, but Hagel’s empty-net goal three minutes later notched the win.
–Field Level Media
