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Capitals win three in a row; ‘Walls closing in’ on Lightning

Capitals

Don’t look now, but the Washington Capitals are officially on a winning streak.

The Capitals captured their third straight victory, despite nearly blowing a three-goal third period lead and barely hanging on to defeat their Southeast Division rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 Thursday.

Alex Ovechkin, who had goals in his last three games prior to Thursday, was held off the score sheet and was a minus-two.

Jay Beagle scored his first of the season and what turned out to be the winner.

Still, Capitals head coach Adam Oates was critical of how his team worked to a three-goal lead just prior to the midway point of the third period and then nearly coughed it up after the Lightning scored twice to narrow Washington’s lead to just a goal.

“You obviously have to use it as a learning curve,” Oates told NHL.com

“We obviously did a lot of good things to make it 4-1 and made a mistake to make it 4-2. We didn’t protect the puck as we should have on their end and we gave a guy a breakaway, which we shouldn’t have.”

Meanwhile, the Lightning have lost six in a row and have only one point courtesy a shootout loss in those six games.

“It’s devastating,” Marty St. Louis told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s like there’s no air in the room right now. The walls are closing in.”