In a thrilling opening week game at the Verizon Center, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals needed extra time to decide an amazing division matchup. Jason Chimera tied the game for Washington with just under three minutes to to send it to the extra period.
Chimera bookended the 3rd period with goals for the Caps, putting them ahead to start the period and then evening it up after two Lightning goals pushed Tampa in front with 7 minutes to play. Nate Thompson and Brett Clark scored for Tampa in the third.
In overtime, four-on-four became three-on-three for fifty seconds when Alexander Semin hooked Dominic Moore to join Tampa’s Marc-Andre Bergeron in the penalty box. The Lightning could not capitalize on the final 50 seconds of the power play when Bergeron was released from the box. They were given a gift from the Caps, however, who incurred a too-many-men on the ice bench penalty, giving the Bolts an extra man for the final 50 seconds of OT. Once again, Tampa could not take advantage of the extra man as the overtime period ended in a 5-5 tie.
The Lightning would lose on penalty shots when Nate Thompson and Dominic Moore had Tampa’s first two attempts smothered by Tomas Vokoun. Matt Hendricks would connect for the Caps on a crafty pump fake that Dwyane Roloson bit on and Alexander Semin would finish it off for Washington on their third penatly shot. Roloson would finish with 38 saves on 43 attempts as the Lightning fell to 1-1-1 in this opening week.