Alexander Semin's big night powers the Washington Capitals past the Tampa Bay Lightning
Washington Capitals forward Alexander Semin had a five-point night as he led his team to a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday 11 November.
How it happened
The game started slowly but built up momentum toward the end. The Lightning scored the only goal of the first period through Teddy Purcell who got his second of the season.
Washington began to get things going in the second period with goals from Tom Poti and Mike Knuble.
The third period exploded with a flurry of goals, the first two coming with the man advantage with the Lightning and Capitals trading power play goals. Tampa scored the first through Ryan Malone, and the
second came from Semin who scored his first of three on the night.
Steven Stamkos got his 14th of the season less than two minutes after Semin scored his second of the night, but Alex Ovechkin scored his ninth of the season at 15:08 of the third to make it 5-3, and put
the game more or less out of reach. Semin added an empty netter with 16 seconds to go to complete his hat trick.
What they're saying
The main talking point of the match was the outstanding play of Semin, who is now second in the NHL with 12 goals, just behind Stamkos. "He's a great player with a lot of skills," Semin's linemate Nicklas
Backstrom, who had four assists on the night, said after the game. "He's a sniper out there. He can score. I haven't seen Alex play as well as he is right now."
Lightning forward Vincent Lecavalier did not play in the third period as he had to leave with a hand injury. "Vinny was playing so good the last four games," Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher told reporters
after the game. "He could've had three points every game. Just real bad luck for him - I feel for him."
The Washington Capitals are one of the hottest teams in the NHL and have now won six in row. During that span they have scored five or more goals all but once.
It sometimes seems hard to lay praise upon a goalie who surrenders three goals in a game, but Capitals netminder Michal Neuvirth was peppered by the Lightning who outshot the Capitals 41-25.
The Capitals take their impressive win streak into Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Saturday 13 November.
The Lightning now have only one win in their last five games. They play on back-to-back nights as they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
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