Capitals Shock Lightning

Artem Chubarov scored a pair of goals to lead the Washington Capitals to a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Day 44. The win moves Washington to 10-9-3 for the season.

The Captials got on the board first at 7:59 of the first period when Mikael Renberg scored an unassisted goal. Tampa Bay didn't waste much time getting things even, however, as Nylander scored from Varlamov and Jillson at 10:05. Just 1:12 later the Lightning took their first lead of the game on a power play goal from Kubina. Lemieux and Hejduk assisted on the goal. The Capitals then turned the tide on Tampa to tie the game at 2-2. Zigmund Palffy got the goal from Rob Blake and Patrick Marleau at 14:25. A couple minutes later Washington regained the lead on the power play with Chubarov's first of the game from Bryan Berard and Mark Eaton.

After a scoreless second period, the Capitals scored a pair of goals just 34 seconds apart to go up 5-2. Anson Carter scored the first from Dan Snyder and Ivan Rachunek at 8:10. Chubarov then netted his second from Mikael Renberg and Todd Warriner at 8:44. Trailing by three goals, the Lightning needed a boost, and a penalty to Greg Watson at 10:53 did the trick. McLaren scored on the power play from Hejduk at 11:57, and just 1:21 later it was 5-4 as Hejduk scored from Calder and Kubina. Hejduk then did it again 21 seconds later to tie the game and send the home crowd crazy. Calder and Kubina assisted on the tying goal. With the final minute winding down, it looked like overtime was on the way, but Peter Tenkrat stepped up to score the game-winning goal for the Capitals with just 13 seconds remaining. Watson and Rachunek assisted on the goal.

Manny Legace made 25 saves to earn the win. Peter Skudra has two saves in relief. Kari Lehtonen stopped just 20 shots for Tampa Bay, but Jani Hurme got the loss after stopping five of six shots in relief.

Washington returns to action on Day 46 against the Nashville Predators.