In the second, Milano scored his 15th goal of the year after Anthony Cirelli’s clearing pass struck a stick and bounced off it. The Lightning scored a double-deflection goal in between those tallies when Brayden Point tipped Raddysh’s point shot, which then deflected off Anthony Duclair’s skate and entered the net. Shortly after Milano’s second goal, Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli combined to win a board fight, tying the score. When they got it to him in the middle of the rink, Brandon Hagel moved well to gain some room and then backhanded a shot under the crossbar.
With just over ninety minutes remaining in the first, Mikey Eyssimont hit Nick Jensen at center ice, sending the experienced defenseman flying into the boards and drastically altering the tone of the game.
The teammates huddled around Jensen on the ice, who appeared to be comatose. His colleagues TJ Oshie, John Carlson, and Alex Ovechkin deserve a great deal of credit for stopping the throng from skating over the wounded Jensen, which is something that frequently occurs in situations like this.
The medical staff would pull out a stretcher to remove Jensen from the ice, and the game would stop. In order to give the teams time to gather themselves, the referees made the decision to leave for an interval early. The PR team at the Capital did issue a statement during the second period stating that Jensen was able to move his extremities and was in a stable condition.
The game becomes even more intense whenever a play like that takes place. Regardless of the hit’s legality, the Capitals were clearly upset about it and proceeded to use up their remaining checks for the remainder of the evening, finishing with 56 hits in the game.
The goalies also improved; during the period, Andrei Vasilevskiy (30 saves) and Charlie Lindgren (32 saves) exchanged impressive saves. After Stamkos missed, Nikita Kucherov found himself alone on the far post. Lindgren made an incredibly beautiful save on Kucherov. It was the first time Kucherov had not appeared on the scoreboard in eight games.
The Lightning committed consecutive penalties in the third period, and the Capitals made them pay. Nic Dowd, who had battled Eyssimont earlier in the game, all but sealed the victory with his 11th goal of the year, pouncing on a loose puck before Vasilevskiy could cover it. John Carlson found some open ice in the right circle, and he ripped one past Vasilevskiy to give the home team the lead.
The Lightning dropped their second straight game and their third in their last four games after guaranteeing a postseason berth. Although they didn’t play poorly, they did have a few coverage errors, particularly on the Dowd goal, and a few mishandled breakout passes. They should address these before the playoffs begin next weekend.
They’ll get an opportunity to practice those fundamentals with two home games remaining in the season.
