TAMPA, Fla. (AP) The Tampa Bay Lightning shut down the NHL’s top scorer and rallied from a two-goal deficit for a quality win.
Brayden Point scored on a power play in overtime, Tampa Bay held high-scoring Alex Ovechkin pointless and the Lightning beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Monday night.
“The team that deserved to win won tonight,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We were a determined group.”
Point redirected Nikita Kucherov’s shot at 3:08 that came after the Capitals were assessed a too many men on the ice penalty.
Ovechkin entered with seven goals in Washington’s first two games this season.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Alex Killorn, Chris Kunitz and Kucherov, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.
T.J. Oshie had two goals and an assist, while Nicklas Backstrom added a goal and two assists for the Capitals. Philipp Grubauer stopped 36 shots in his first game of the season.
“The good and bad is, I thought we could have left here with two points and are leaving here with one,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said.
Kucherov tied it at three on an in-close backhander at 10:46 of the third.
Ovechkin had three goals in the third period in Thursday’s opening night win at Ottawa, then matched the feat while helping chase Montreal goalie Carey Price in the first period Saturday. He added his fourth goal in the second period against Al Montoya.
Ovechkin, bidding to become the first NHL player to have a hat trick in three consecutive games, had a power-play scoring chance from the left circle in the second turned aside by Vasilevskiy. He finished with four shots and was a minus-2
Backstrom and Oshie, on a power play deflection from the slot, scored 1:23 apart late in the first as Washington took a 2-0 lead.
After Killorn and Oshie, with the man advantage, traded goals early in the second, Kunitz’s redirection cut the deficit to 3-2 with 1:51 left in the period.
“A good building block for our team,” Kunitz said.
Grubauer made several strong saves, including Steven Stamkos’ left circle drive, during an early third period power play.
Vasilevskiy stopped a first-period breakaway by Evgeny Kuznetsov, who got his eighth assist on Oshie’s second goal.
“We had a couple chances to make it 4-1 and we didn’t,” Trotz said. “They just chipped away.”