Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin celebrates with the bench after his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday evening. The celebration didn’t last long. (Chris O'Meara - AP) Tuesday night marked the first time in this Eastern Conference semifinal series that theWashington Capitals entered the third period with a lead, but the Tampa Bay Lightning obliterated it with two goals in 24 seconds.

With a 4-3 victory over Washington, Tampa Bay will be looking to end the Capitals’ season with a fourth win in the best-of-seven series.

A loss would continue the postseason frustrations for the Capitals, who haven’t advanced past the second round under Coach Bruce Boudreau.

Alex Ovechkin, for one, remains confident the Capitals will keep playing:

It’s not over. We’re not going to give up. We’re going to win. We have to defend our lead and play our game but we didn’t. I think when we get the puck deep only one guy was chasing. We tried to play too safe. We didn’t play our way at all.

The Capitals face daunting odds: Just three teams have ever come back from a three-game deficit: the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers, the 1975 New York Islanders and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.

Can the Caps pull off a victory?

Share your thoughts on tonight’s game — and the Tampa Bay-Washington series in general — by tweeting @washingtonpost with #WPCaps. We’ll post some of your replies back here. Game 4 is tonight at 7 p.m.