TAMPA, Fla. — Games carrying the promise of hot tempers from the previous meeting carrying into the next one seldom live up to the expectations.
And while many might have predicted the Lightning and Capitals to tussle early in Sunday’s game — two nights after an illegal hit to the head knocked out defenseman Cal Foote— Tampa Bay was more focused on punishing Washington in a different way in the opening period.
The Lightning ran out to their best start of the year, scoring a season-high four goals in the first period of a commanding 6-3 win.
They then showed they weren’t going to be pushed around, as Pat Maroon dropped his gloves with Capitals defenseman Matt Irwin.
The Lightning got a much-needed spark from their struggling power play, which scored two of the four first-period goals.
Three of the four were scored by defensemen putting pucks on net from afar, including two from Mikhail Sergachev.
After Sergachev opened the scoring with a seeing-eye shot from just inside the blue line at the left point that went through traffic and past goaltender Darcy Kuemper just 83 seconds into the game, Sergachev found Nikita Kucherov wide open at the right dot for a one-timer that beat Kuemper short side 8:19 into the game for a power-play goal.
Rookie defenseman Nick Perbix then flung a puck toward the net from the far wall that hit Capitals defenseman Erik Gustafsson’s skate and slid into the back of the net, prompting Perbix to shrug as his teammates gathered to celebrate his third NHL goal.
It was that kind of night for the Lightning (8-6-1), who tallied the first eight shots and didn’t allow a Capitals shot on goal until 2:50 remained in the first period.
After going 0-for-8 over their previous two games on the power play and 5-for-35 over their last nine, the Lightning scored on their first two power plays.
Sergachev put the Lightning up 4-0 with a power-play goal with 3:38 left in the first period, flicking a shot from the center point into the net, prompting the Capitals to pull Kuemper for Charlie Lindgren.
Conor Sheary put the Capitals on the board with 1:56 left in the second period, taking advantage of a 2-on-1 breakaway to cut the Washington’s deficit to 4-1.
Maroon didn’t like Garnet Hathaway’s hit on Cole Koepke near the Capitals bench in the final minutes of the second period, so he went after Hathaway, who Maroon had fought after Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s illegal hit leveled Foote on Friday. Meanwhile, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Irwin tangled with each other and eventually dropped their gloves.
Koepke scored his first NHL goal in the third period, his backhanded shot off the post ruled a goal after video review showed the puck went in off the post.
The Lightning’s penalty kill unit was 6-for-6, holding the Capitals’ power play scoreless over 10 minutes of man-advantage time.
The teams combined for three goals over the final 3:01, as Lars Eller and Hathaway scored for Washington Nick Paul had an empty-netter for Tampa Bay.
