Carlson, Holtby power Capitals to rout of Lightning
WASHINGTON -- Defenseman John Carlson scored twice in the first period and Braden Holtby stopped 23 shots as the Washington Capitals rolled to a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Friday night at Verizon Center.
Alex Ovechkin and Marcus Johansson also scored for Washington (20-8-4), which had lost two straight, one via shootout. Nicklas Backstrom had two assists, giving him 497 for his career.
Holtby picked up his third shutout of the season and 26th career as Washington and Tampa Bay played their final game before the Christmas break.
The Capitals improved 18-0-0 when they score three or more goals.
Playing the second of back-to-backs, Tampa Bay (17-15-3) struggled from the outset as it trailed before the game was a minute old and rarely sustained an attack on Holtby.
It was one of those nights for Tampa Bay. Johansson was called for goaltender interference at 6:25 of the third period. The Lightning mounted little offense on the power play, and when he left the box, Johansson quickly took a cross-ice pass from Backstrom and scored his 13th of the season to make it 4-0.
That was all for Andrei Vasilevskiy (20 saves) as goalie Kristers Gudlevskis made his season debut after being called up this week following an injury to Ben Bishop.
Carlson scored twice in the first period for Washington and Tampa Bay, looking every bit like a team that played the night before, managed just two shots on goals despite two power plays.
It was 1-0 just 55 seconds in after Carlson's shot from the point deflected in off Vasilevskiy's glove.
At 15:42 of the period, Carlson struck again. This time, he blasted a one-timer past Vasilevskiy from the top of the right circle off a feed from Marcus Johansson behind the end line. It was his third goal of the season.
The Lightning put a flurry of shots on Holtby to open the second period, but nothing got through.
Midway through the second period, Dmitri Orlov flipped the puck down the ice from the Washington end. Ovechkin got behind the defense, gathered in the puck and came in on a breakaway. He deked and then backhanded the puck home for this 15th goal of the season to make it 3-0.
NOTES: Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat missed his fifth consecutive game with an undisclosed injury and C Cedric Paquette (lower body) sat out his second straight contest. C Vladislav Namestnikov (illness) also was a scratch. ... With three assists on Thursday, D Victor Hedman (258 points) moved into ninth place on Tampa Bay's all-time scoring list. ... Washington captain Alex Ovechkin has scored more points against Tampa Bay than any NHL franchise except Atlanta/Winnipeg. ... The Capitals are third in the NHL in goals-against average. ... Washington's scratches included D Nate Schmidt, LW Daniel Winnik and LW Zach Sanford. ... The Lightning resume play Wednesday when they host the Montreal Canadiens. The Capitals play the New York Islanders in Brooklyn on Tuesday.