Draw Blank Plugs and Bolts

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 31 shots he faced Saturday night at Amalie Arena, shutting down the Capitals for the 35th time in his NHL career and the first in 21 starts against Washington. Vasilevskiy’s whiteout snapped a personal three-game losing streak and also stopped the Capitals’ five-game winning streak.

“I’ll be glad when he leaves the league one day,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Vasilevskiy, who has posted seven straight seasons with 30 or more wins.

Washington played solidly, doing most of what it has done all season in the offensive zone, but couldn’t get a single goal behind their respected goaltender. Vasilevskiy got all the offense he needed with a Mitchell Chaffee goal in the second period, and the Lightning scored two more quick goals early in the third.

“We said this morning that they have a good team and a top-six team that is as good as anyone in the NHL,” Carbery said. “So they’ll make you step on a couple of scenes. But overall we created a lot of beautiful images. The zone (offensive) timing was spot on, we defended pretty well and checked pretty well for the most part. We just didn’t have that polish, (that) finish, we didn’t show the kind of play that we needed to show to anyone throughout the game.

The first period was surprisingly even, and it was also the first time the Caps and an opponent have played a scoreless first 20 minutes in Washington’s seven games this season.

Alexey Protas had the opportunity to break away at the beginning of the first match, but Vasilievsky denied him. Much of the period was spent trading draws at each team’s ends of the court, with nothing happening until the back half of the frame, when both sides played more than six and a half minutes without a whistle.

The Caps had a late power play chance in the first frame, and that advantage showed in the opening seconds of the middle frame. They limited themselves to one late shot into the net.

The Lightning took a 1-0 lead early in the second period. Caps center P.L. Dubois lost his stick while attempting to stick-check Lightning center Nick Paul along the left side of the wall in the Washington zone. Dubois picked up his stick and Mikey Eissimon hit Paul from the top half of the left circle. Mitchell Chaffee stepped up to the net and deftly deflected Paul’s shot, sending it over the shoulder of Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren at 5:27.

Vasilevskiy was tested more in the second game, but he was equal to everything the Caps sent him. He stopped Nic Dowd early in the period; The Washington center just jumped onto the ice, took a pass from the weak side and shot from the left circle.

Washington spent a fair amount of time in the offensive zone all night, and he was relatively effective at sending pucks toward the net while getting opportunities for lobs and rebounds. Several of these shots were wide of the goal and the Bolts defended the inside well in other opportunities.

Just past the midpoint of the middle frame, Dubois hit the post with a powerful shot from the left circle. The very next shift, Dubois had a couple of chances from tight, but he failed both times.

Looking to extend his career-high point streak to seven games, Dylan Strome was stopped on a call from the slot late in the second, but he probably didn’t get as much power out of the shot as he would have liked, either.

The Caps stopped Tampa Bay’s power play late in the second, and Washington entered the third still scoreless.

Early in the third, the Lightning doubled their lead with an extended offensive zone shift. The Caps couldn’t get the lead they needed, and the ever-dangerous Nikita Kucherov found Brayden Point alone in front and fed him the pass to make it 2-0 at 2:26.

After the shift, the score became 3:0. Anthony Cirelli set up Conor Geekie for the first goal, and the rookie didn’t miss, scoring his first NHL goal at 3:10 of the third.

“I think we actually played a pretty good hockey game,” said Lindgren, who made 18 saves on the night. “Coming out of here with a loss is, you know, unpleasant, obviously.

“I think we had some views; Before the third goal the score was 1:0 and we know the next goal will be big. And unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong side. And then pretty quickly after that they put another one in. When you go down three, it’s obviously a mountain.”

The shutout was the first setback the Caps have suffered since March 11, when they lost by the same score in Winnipeg against the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck.

“We just couldn’t make that last play,” Carbery said, “whether it was a 2-on-1, whether Vasilevskiy was cold, whether it was a chance to score on a rebound, we just couldn’t do it.” last game tonight which will happen from time to time. But the process is good. If you told me we were going to come here and beat Tampa in their building, I would have taken it all day. Sometimes in the evenings they don’t deal with you.