WASHINGTON -- The Lightning went with the rookie and hung him out to dry.
With starting goaltender Mathieu Garon out with an injury, Tampa Bay started rookie goaltender Dustin Tokarski in an important game Thursday in the Lightning's push to the playoffs. The 22-year-old came within 3 minutes of picking up his first career victory but ultimately ended up on the wrong side of a 3-2 overtime loss to Washington.
Alex Ovechkin scored with 50.3 seconds left in the overtime as the Capitals erased a third-period deficit to move three points ahead of Tampa Bay in the standings. With the point gained by the Lightning, they pull to within three points of the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference standings, pending Winnipeg's late game in Vancouver.
Tokarski finished his first career start with 29 saves to take the overtime loss. After the game he had such bad cramps he required two bags of sodium chloride solution. He said the cramps started affecting him 5 minutes into the third period.
"I felt good, I felt fine, I felt comfortable in there," Tokarski said. "But in the end, I have to make another save there, I have to come up with a big save at the end of the third."
It was a late moment that spoiled a solid outing by Tokarski as Marcus Johansson took advantage of a poor clear attempt and bad turnover just inside the Tampa Bay blue line. Johannson skated in alone and fired a shot under the rookie goalie with 3:58 left to play. It was another similar turnover that led to Ovechkin's overtime winner.
"That was just a dumb, dumb, dumb play at the end and we talk about it all the time, that puck has to get out by the boards and we had one, two, three, four chances to get it out," Lightning head coach Guy Boucher said. "Then it gets to the middle and we are right there, our sticks are right there all we have to do is get it out."
Tokarski settled into the game quickly as Washington had the first five shots on goal. The Capitals still struck first on a pinball-type goal late in the first period. A point shot from Karl Alzner deflected off Marty St. Louis and off the stick of Keith Aucoin just before the puck trickled just inside the far post with 2:52 left in the period. Tokarski finished the period with 12 saves.
The second period saw little action for Tokarski, who had to face only three shots on goal -- including a stretch of 16:56 without seeing a shot. Meanwhile, the Lightning took the lead with a pair of power-play goals. Malone tied the game redirecting in a Steven Stamkos pass with his skate at 7:25 to tie the game. Then late in the period, Teddy Purcell took a feed from St. Louis at the left circle and fired a shot on net that was saved by Tomas Vokoun but deflected into the net off the skate of Washington defenseman John Carlson with 1:18 left in the second.
With the lead, the Lightning dropped into defend mode, getting pucks into the zone and changing before defending some more. The strategy, which resulted in no shots on goal by Tampa Bay for most of the period, came back to bite them in the end, even if Boucher said it wasn't a designed strategy.
"They came at us, they were making a push and you have to give them credit. They were throwing everything at us," said Purcell, who increased his scoring streak to 11 games. "(Tokarski) is standing on his head in his first (start) and we are up with about three to play, we have to get that puck out.
"But we are confident in games like that where we can lock things up ... and I thought we did a real good job of weathering that and that one mistake ended up costing us."
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