Capitals fight back three separate times to wrap up winning Florida trip

The Washington Capitals didn’t take the easy route but still prevailed 5-4 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. Washington fought through three separate Lightning leads and one all-time gaffe that we’ll stop reminding Charlie Lindgren about after this post.

Really nice response in both games from the team at five-on-five. Spencer Carbery has to be happy.

• There isn’t a ton you can point to statistically for when and how the Capitals got back into this game and I actually didn’t think the first period, outside of the first five minutes, was all that bad. I think a lot of the comeback effort came down to just sheer resiliency and finally getting some of that puck luck back that they’ve been missing the last three games. The third period was certainly their best in terms of controlling play, out-attempting Tampa Bay 17-9 at five-on-five. Always good to finish a game like this with your best.
• I thought Tom Wilson had a really nice game, his first in a long while. Wilson scored the game-winning goal on a power play late in the third, earned an assist on Aliaksei Protas’ shorthanded marker, fired six shots on net, threw two hits, and a huge shot block in the final minute.
• The Capitals were phenomenal with Matt Roy on the ice as he continues his strong work on a pairing with Rasmus Sandin. During Roy’s five-on-five minutes, Washington won the battles in shot attempts 24-6, shots on goal 13-1, scoring chances 13-2, and high-danger chances 5-0. That’s masterclass stuff and Sandin-Roy primarily played against Tampa Bay’s Guentzel-Point-Kucherov line.

• I was pretty hard on Charlie Lindgren in the recap but he really deserves some props for immediately bouncing back after that own goal. He made a huge stop on Nikita Kucherov right after scoring on his own net, allowing the Capitals to stay within one goal. Lindgren finished with 25 saves and is now above .500 again (6-5-0) on the season.
• John Carlson made a fantastic individual play to get the game back to 4-4 in the third. Carlson’s third goal of the season was the 154th of his career, passing Dave Ellett (153) for the 10th-most goals by an American-born defenseman in NHL history.
• Per Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir, the Capitals are 20-9-0 with their mentors/dads in attendance since 2008.