Troy Brouwer’s hat trick helps Washington Capitals takedown Tampa Bay Lightning – NHL Update
Troy Brouwer scored a goal at the end of the final period to complete his hat-trick, much to the dismay of Tampa Bay Lightning that was on a verge of a comeback, as Washington Capitals defeated Lightning, 4-3, on Friday, January 13, 2012 at the Verizon Center
in Washington District of Columbia, United States.
After falling behind early in the game, Lightning fought their way back into the game rather smartly, but Brouwer’s goal crushed their hopes as they were handed down their sixth straight loss.
Tampa Bay's coach, Guy Boucher, was furious after the game.
“What's tough is we're not getting the breaks", Boucher regretted.
"We missed how many goals in the last five minutes? It's been like that for a long time; that's the story of our season. We've got injuries over injuries and adversity after adversity, and the breaks are just not coming at all".
Tampa Bay Lightning was far from disciplined on the rink.
They gave away power-plays early in the game, which were perfectly utilised by the Capitals.
Within the first minute, Pavel Kubina was sent off for two minutes after high-sticking Marcus Johansson.
Nearly around two minutes later, Lightning received another penalty when Martin St. Louis was penalised with a minor penalty for interfering with Joel Ward.
The shorthanded Lightning team could not get away this time.
They paid the price when Alex Ovechkin flicked his wrist and fired a shot to beat Tampa Bay's goalie, Dwayne Roloson, for the first goal of the game.
Lightning did not learn from their mistake, committing more fouls.
Eric Brewer was the next one to award another power-play to the Capitals.
Alexander Semin and Dennis Wideman took advantage of their shorthanded opponents and set up Brouwer, who scored his first and the team’s second goal of the game.
The Capitals continued their aggressive run in the second period as well and Brouwer scored his second goal to give the Capitals a three-goal lead.
The game, that seemingly became predictable, took a new turn late in the period when Lightning began to mount pressure on its opponents.
Martin St. Louis earned the possession of the puck and sent a pass to Tom Pyatt, who fired a wrist-shot for Tampa Bay’s first scoring move.
For most part of the final period, both the teams tried hard, but could not manage a scoring move.
It was however, Capitals’ fault this time that was capitalised by Lightning.
At 16:00, Roman Hamrlik received a two-minute penalty.
Ryan Malone earned a takeaway and set up Steven Stamkos, with the help of Vincent Lecavalier to reduce the deficit to only one goal.
However, with just a minute left in the game, Brouwer scored his third goal to once again increase the lead.
Lightning hit back and scored another goal with 11 seconds left on the clock, but still fell a goal short of the opponents.
"Those games just mean a lot more. You're into it more. It's got a more of a different feel to it than a boring go-along-with-it game", Brouwer said after scoring the hat trick. "These get you into it right from the beginning. Lot of battles out there".
Washington Capitals are now going to face Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, while Tampa Bay will face Pittsburgh Penguins on the same day.
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