Stanley Cup playoffs

The Tampa Bay Lightning stunk up its own building the first two games of the Eastern Conference final, losing both games to the Washington Capitals.

But Tuesday night the desperate Lightning lit up the Capitals building, scoring the first three goals and going on to win Game 3 of their playoff series 4-2.

Steve Stamkos’ one-time blast from the left circle put the Lightning ahead at 13:53 of the first.

With Tampa on the power play, Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik fanned on a clearing attempt down deep. Brayden Point grabbed the puck and fed Victor Hedman at the point, who layed off a perfect pass to Stamkos. He ripped it past Caps goaltender Braden Holtby.

The Lightning struck for two quick goals at the start of the second period. At 1:50, Nikita Kucherov, who was goalless in the first two games, scored a mirror-image goal of Stamkos’ opener, and again it was Hedman on the feed. With the Lightning again on a power play, Kucherov ripped it from the right circle.

At 3:37, Kucherov returned the favor to Hedman. Kucherov fed the defenseman flying down the slot unchecked and he put a deft wrister past Holtby.

The Capitals finally got on the board when Brett Connolly scored at 10:31 of the second. Chandler Stephenson found a loose puck in the high slot and fed Connolly for a one-timer to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with 35 saves.

But Tampa restored the three-goal lead when Point somehow found a puck in a scrum in front the Washington goal and whacked it through the legs of Stephenson to beat Holtby.

With Holtby pulled for an extra skater late in the third, Evgeny Kutnetzov scored at 16:58 off of T.J. Oshie’s feed to narrow the deficit to two goals.

Nicklas Backstrom was again left out of the Capitals’ lineup. The center has missed four games with a right hand injury sustained when he blocked a shot in Game 5 of the second round against Pittsburgh. The Capitals are 3-0 without him, including Games 1 and 2 against the Lightning.

Backstrom participated in the morning skate on Tuesday and before a 6-2, Game 2 win at Tampa Bay on Sunday. Coach Barry Trotz said Backstrom was a game-time decision before each of the games in the conference final.

Tampa coach Jon Cooper stuck with the same lineup that lost to the first two games to the Capitals.

“We’ve thought about different things, but for me and our staff, we don’t feel it’s a personnel issue with how things are going,” he said. “It’s how we’re playing and our effort, our game plan. That’s the difference.

“If we thought, ‘OK, we need more defensemen in here to free up something,’ or, ‘We don’t need the 12th forward,’ or whatever it is, but that’s not the case. All our lines have contributed all throughout the playoffs.”

To Cooper, the issue is that “for two games, we’ve dried up.”

With NHL.com