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Caps at a Loss After Another Home Defeat
Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin drives against Tampa Bay's Brad Lukowich.
(John McDonnell - The Post)
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"We're sitting here one game below .500 on the road, but we have two wins at home," he said. "We have to make this a tougher place to play."
Last night opened another important stretch for the Capitals, who play Southeast Division opponents nine times in 11 games. Washington won't play again until back-to-back games Thursday and Friday at Florida and Tampa Bay.
After a crisp but scoreless first period, the action picked up late in the second.
Lightning defenseman Filip Kuba opened the scoring with a power play goal at 12:30. A deflected pass wound up on Kuba's stick, and with no one standing between him and the Washington net, he wound up and blasted the puck over Kolzig's blocker pad.
The goal came four seconds after rookie Nicklas Backstrom was sent to the penalty box for holding the stick.
After falling behind, the Capitals cranked up the pressure, albeit briefly.
Johan Holmqvist (23 saves) stopped Ovechkin on a rush with a splendid pad save with about three minutes remaining in the period. But the Lightning goaltender, who had .969 save percentage his previous two games, both wins, couldn't stop Ovechkin seconds later.
Capitals defenseman Mike Green juked Lightning defenseman Shane O'Brien with a nifty cross-over move at the blue line, then blasted into the slot, where he dished the puck to Ovechkin. The all-star winger buried it behind the fallen goaltender to tie the score at 1 at 18:20.
Washington promptly imploded after the intermission.
After the consecutive goals by Prospal and St. Louis, Donald Brashear took an unnecessary roughing penalty at the tail end of a Capitals' power play. Then, Green was sent off for four minutes high sticking. Green's stick broke the nose of Jan Hlavac.
Ryan Craig put the game out of reach 1:18 later, making it 4-1.
Tomas Fleischmann trimmed the deficit to 4-2 late, but the Capitals could get no closer. Lightning defenseman Paul Ranger provided the final margin with an empty-net goal with 21 seconds left.
"We shot ourselves in the foot," Green said. "I took a bad penalty, but it was a combination of things."
Capitals Notes: Prospect Chris Bourque was reassigned to Hershey (Pa.) of the American Hockey League after the game. He skated 7:27. Dan Boyle, the Lightning's No. 1 defenseman, was sidelined after undergoing surgery for the second time on Friday to repair tendons in his left wrist. He suffered the injury in a freak accident when a skate fell from his locker during training camp.
