But after Tampa Bay claimed only its 18th win of the season with a 4-3 victory, Washington Coach Ron Wilson said simply, "The difference was goaltending. Their goaltender was better than our goaltender." Wilson said he was upset with the second, third and fourth goals allowed by Rick Tabaracci, who gave up the Lightning's final two goals in a 37-second span of the third period.
In the first two games between the teams, Tampa Bay went through three goalies, games in which the Capitals outscored the Lightning 18-3.
"You make a bunch of great saves and then get carried away," Wilson said of Tabaracci, who had saved several Lightning breakaways early in the game.
Tabaracci later responded, saying, "Everyone's entitled to their opinion. I think that's a little extreme, but whatever."
As for the rest of the team, Wilson said: "Generally we had more chances than they did, so I wasn't displeased with our effort at all. We gave a great effort. It wasn't our young players who made mistakes."
With both teams solidly out of playoff contention – the Lightning (18-51-6) has been mathematically eliminated and Washington (30-39-6) is only technically alive – young players fighting for NHL jobs next season dominated the lineups. The Lightning has traded away many of its veterans in an effort to rebuild, while the Capitals have several injured veterans, including right wing Peter Bondra, who has scored 29 goals in 29 career games against Tampa Bay.
Initially, it appeared the Capitals would do just fine without Bondra; Andrei Nikolishin scored 28 seconds into the game. The goal came on Washington's first shot, but apparently the Lightning was not ready to suffer another rout. Tampa Bay tied the game at 1 on a power play less than three minutes later, when Darcy Tucker deflected Petr Svoboda's shot from the left point.
The score appeared to give the Lightning some offensive confidence, although Tabaracci was able to make several stops, including a pad save on a Stephane Richer breakaway. Shortly afterward, he and Richer began exchanging words near the Washington net, but there was no contact between the two players.
The Capitals took the lead again, 16 minutes 37 seconds into the second period, when Black scored his second goal in as many games. Nikolishin started the play by making a diving poke near the blue line to send the puck deep into the corner of the Tampa Bay zone. By the time Richard Zednik got the puck in front of the net, one of the Lightning defensemen was able to poke it away, but the puck went straight to Black, who took the quick scoring shot.
The goal was Black's 15th of the season, a career high. It was not enough to keep the Capitals ahead going into the second intermission, however. With just 33 seconds remaining in the second period, Jason Cullimore scored short-handed, sending what was originally meant as a pass to Rob Zamuner bouncing between Tabaracci's pads for the 2-2 tie.
"I thought I had the puck all the way until all of a sudden it skipped off," Tabaracci said. "We made some critical mistakes in the game. Since the trade deadline [March 23], we've played some good games, but we've been allowing four or five breakaways a night, and it's cost us at times."
The Lightning took control of the game in the third period, starting with a goal from Richer at 8:01. Tabaracci had left his crease to cut down the angle on an oncoming shot, but when it went wide of the net it took him a few extra seconds to get back into position. In the meantime, Richer took the puck off the rear boards and stuffed it around the right post.
Thirty-seven seconds later, Tampa Bay made it 4-2 after Tucker corralled the puck from behind the Washington net. He passed it out to Zamuner, whose quick shot beat Tabaracci at 8:38. The Capitals were able to tighten the score with a power-play goal when Brian Bellows poked Nikolishin's shot away from goaltender Kevin Hodson at 11:23, but they could not score again, despite pulling Tabaracci for an extra skater in the game's final minute.
Capitals Notes
Lightning Coach Jacques Demers was honored in a pregame ceremony for coaching his 1,000 NHL game tonight. He is only the fifth coach in league history to reach the milestone, but Washington winger Enrico Ciccone likely was not clapping. Ciccone, who played for the Lightning earlier this season before Demers first sent him to the minors and then traded him, taunted the Tampa Bay bench the last time he was here. Tonight, Demers pulled Ciccone aside in a hallway before the game. The two spoke for about two minutes in French, with Demers pointing at Ciccone several times. Afterward, Ciccone declined to discuss the talk, saying only, "I don't want to talk about Jacques Demers anymore. He's out of my life."