Two nights after taking down the defending champs, Caps seek sweep of Florida trip
November 27 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: TNT, MAX
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (14-6-1)
Tampa Bay Lightning (11-7-2)
Two nights after taking down the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers in South Florida, the Caps cross over the Sunshine State to Tampa where they’ll finish the 2024-25 Mentors’ Trip Wednesday at Amalie Arena.
Behind a three-point (one goal, two assists) performance from Jakob Chychrun and a suffocating third period defensively, the Caps rebounded from an early 1-0 deficit to down the Panthers 4-1 in what was a 1-1 game entering the third, earning their fifth straight road victory.
Chychrun’s 5-on-3 power play goal was the game-winner; it came early in the third period. With a one-goal lead, the Caps pressed for more, but it was a good night for Spencer Knight. The Florida netminder stopped 27 of 29 shots before Washington iced the game late with a pair of empty-net goals.
Logan Thompson made 20 saves for the Caps to raise his record to 9-1-1 on the season. Six of those 20 saves came in the final four minutes of the second period when the Panthers put some serious heat on the Capitals, before Tom Wilson was able to temporarily stifle that uprising when by drawing a tripping call on Florida defenseman Uvis Balinskis with 21.1 seconds left in the middle frame.
With the Caps on a carryover power play in the opening seconds of the third, Connor McMichael broke in on a semi-breakaway, forcing Knight to flash his left pad to make the save. The Washington forward also drew a slashing call on Panthers’ defenseman Aaron Ekblad, putting their top two penalty-killing defensemen – in terms of ice time, and among the players they dressed for Monday’s game – in the penalty box and giving the Caps a two-man advantage of 83 seconds in duration.
Just over a minute into the two-man advantage, Chychrun solved Knight from center point, with P-L Dubois blocking the Florida netminder’s view at the top of the paint.
Chychrun’s 5-on-3 goal was the third scored – in five attempts – by the Caps this season, tops in the League. Washington had just one goal at 5-on-3 last season.
“I'll be honest; that probably wasn't the way that we drew it up for the first minute and a half of that [5-on-3], but Chych steps up,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I love the screen by Dubie at the net front there at 5-on-3; he's right on top of Knight's eyes, and [the goalie] doesn't see that puck. It's a big moment in the game, and it essentially gets us that win, gets us the lead, and then we can protect it from there.”
And protect it they did. Of the six shots Thompson faced in the third, only four game at 5-on-5 and the closest of those to the net was a Sam Reinhart shot from 29 feet away with about seven minutes remaining. And earlier in the game – in the late stages of the first and early minutes of the second period – Washington held Florida without a shot for more than eight and a half minutes.
“We knew the best defense is on offense,” says Caps’ forward Aliaksei Protas. “You’ve got to go there and pressure them. They're a good team, obviously the defending champions, but they can make mistakes too, and they're not just going to make them on their own. We’ve got to make them do it, you know. And I think that's what we did a couple of times, and we got the power plays and made them pay. So a great overall win, for everybody.”
The Caps played the kind of road game that needs to be played to take down the defending champs in their own building. Now, they’ll try to double down and sweep the Mentors’ Trip with a Wednesday night win over the Lightning.
The detail, discipline and patience in the Caps’ game on Monday was marvelous, and it ran through every player in the lineup. As Protas noted, they forced Florida into some mistakes, but they were also careful not to give them anything to grasp onto, even when they were playing in the Panthers’ end of the ice. Pucks were strategically placed or held onto; few were thrown away.
Instead of being one and done on their forays into Florida ice, the Capitals were often able to burn out the Panthers’ shifts by making them play in their own end. And Washington continued to threaten offensively; Knight kept his club within a goal with some excellent stops until the Caps bagged pair of empty-net goals in the final 90 seconds of the contest.
Washington controlled shot attempts in the third period to the tune of a 17-6 advantage over the Cats at 5-on-5.
“And that's hard to do,” says Carbery. “And to go low to high, and then have to recover it and do it again, it's hard work and it takes commitment, but you can see you can just slowly chip away at a good hockey team. And they're trying to do the same thing to us, but I felt like we were just able to do a little bit more and stay with it, and to grab the 5-on-3 goal and protect that lead.”
While the Caps were winning in Sunrise on Monday night, the Lighting was laying waste to the Colorado Avalanche. The Bolts put an 8-2 beating on the Avs, ending an otherwise perfect (3-1-0) road trip on a sour note.
Tampa Bay is in the thick of things in the Atlantic Division, currently sitting in third place, but with a game or two in hand on all of the teams with which it is competing. For the Bolts, Wednesday’s game is the rubber match of a three-game homestand. Before blasting the Avs, the Lightning took a 4-2 setback at the hands of the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
The Lightning is always tough to handle in its own building; Tampa Bay is 7-2-1 in its 10 home games this season. Washington’s previous visit here in 2024-25 resulted in a 3-0 setback at the hands of Andrei Vasilevskiy (32 saves) in a quick one-game trip to Tampa on Oct. 26.
