@jayRecher
Anthony Cirelli had a goal and two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the visiting Washington Capitals 3-2 on Monday night at Amalie Arena.
Alex Killorn & Brayden Point also scored for Tampa Bay.
Cirelli assisted on the Lightning's first goal when he slid a quick little pass to Killorn and the Tampa Bay winger backhanded it past a sprawling Vitek Vanecek to tie the score at one apiece at the 3:18 mark of the 2nd period. Killorn now has goals in four straight games.
The Capitals found themselves down two men when Dmitry Orlov & Tom Wilson were whistled for penalties just forty seconds apart, and Cirelli made them pay to give Tampa Bay the lead.
Alex Barre-Boulet sent a puck towards the front of the net almost a minute into the 5-on-3 and Cirelli was right there on the doorstep to send it home to put the Lightning up 2-1.
Point made it 3-1 when he took a feed from Taylor Raddysh and squeezed one past the Washington netminder 2:56 into the 3rd. Cirelli picked up the secondary assist on Point's goal and the assist for Raddysh was his 1st NHL point.
The Capitals jumped out to an early lead with the benefit of a fortunate bounce.
Washington's Brett Leason found a loose puck along the boards and fired a shot that bounced off the stick of Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman and past Vasilevskiy to put the Capitals up 1-0 just 73 seconds into the game.
Vasilevskiy, who started his 300th NHL game, was magnificent all game long turning aside a multitude of high-danger scoring chances for Washington. The Caps did close the gap to 3-2 with a Conor Sheary power play goal at the 11:38 mark of the 3rd, but the "Big Cat" shut the door the rest of the way.
Vanecek made 23 saves for Washington in defeat.
Welcome Back Cal : Cal Foote, who missed the first 8 games of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a tendon in his pinkie finger, made his season debut tonight logging 9:46 of ice time.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Washington - Leason - (Jensen) - 1:13
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Killorn - (Cirelli) - 3:18
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Cirelli - (Barre-Boulet, Hedman) - 8:40
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Raddysh, Cirelli) - 2:56
- Washington - PPG - Sheary - (Kuznetsov, Carlson) - 11:38
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Washington - Orlov - (Tripping) - 10:55
- Tampa Bay - Killorn - (Slashing) - 18:25
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Cirelli - (Tripping) - 4:46
- Washington - Orlov - (Hooking) - 7:03
- Washington - Wilson - (Interference) - 7:43
3rd Period
- Washington - Kuznetsov - (Holding) - 3:33
- Tampa Bay - Hedman - (Holding) - 7:27
- Tampa Bay - Perry - (Tripping) - 11:23
- Washington - Hathaway - (Roughing) - 12:34
- Tampa Bay - Maroon - (Roughing) - 12:34
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Thursday night as they travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show starting at 6:30pm on NewsRadio WFLA.
Photo: Getty Images North America
PHOTO : Getty Images