Tom Wilson scored a power-play goal with 3:26 remaining as the Washington Capitals rallied for their sixth straight road win, edging the host Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 on Wednesday night.
With Anthony Cirelli off for a double-minor high-sticking penalty, Wilson broke a 4-4 tie by deflecting a shot by Jakob Chychrun for his seventh goal of the season.
Wilson, Aliaksei Protas and Dylan Strome had a goal and an assist apiece, while Andrew Mangiapane and John Carlson found the net for Washington, which evened the season series with the Lightning at 1-1-0. Goalie Charlie Lindgren had 24 saves.
Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point collected his fifth career hat trick, Michael Eyssimont added a goal, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots.
In his 13th season behind the Lightning bench, Jon Cooper became just the seventh bench boss in NHL history to coach 900 games with one franchise.
Point was on the receiving end of a two-on-one rush pass by Jake Guentzel and lifted a quick backhander by Lindgren at 3:58 of the first period to open the scoring.
The shifty center then moved up the Lightning career leaderboard at 12:27 of the first with his 97th career power-play goal — snapping a tie with Martin St. Louis for third place all-time in the organization’s history — for a 2-0 lead.
On a delayed penalty in the second, the Capitals set up a pass to Lars Eller, who one-timed a shot above the right circle. Mangiapane deflected it over Vasilevskiy at 10:31 to put Washington on the board.
On its third power play, the Lightning saw the lead slip away when Wilson got a pass out to Protas, who beat Vasilevskiy on the near post at 12:29 with his eighth goal — the first one short-handed of his career and the third by the Capitals this season.
Eyssimont stole the puck from Martin Fehervary with a hard check behind Lindgren’s goal and slipped in his second marker in as many games to put the home side back on top with only 44 seconds left in the frame.
The Capitals tied it on Strome’s seventh goal just 97 seconds into the third, but disaster struck on a harmless pass back to Lindgren.
The right-handed shooting goalie attempted to clear the puck behind his net but backhanded it into the cage. He then retrieved the puck and flipped into the stands.
Point touched it last for the Lightning, awarding him his third goal.
Carlson’s third tally at 10:30 tied it 4-4 and moved him into 10th all-time among goals scored by a U.S.-born defenseman.
–Field Level Media
