The Tampa Bay Lightning focused more on defensive play in the first period and actually did quite a nice job of pinning the Washington Capitals in their own end for the first half of the period. At 1:31 of the first period, the Lightning was called for too many men on the ice but prevented the Capitals from registering a single shot on net on the man-advantage.
Although the Lightning played well defensively they had little offensive pressure on Tomas Vokoun for most of the first period. Tampa Bay also had some subpar open ice passes that lead to a few turnovers.
With only 3:05 left in the first period, Matt Hendricks scored the game's first goal after whiffing on the first shot to later try a backhand move that put the puck past Mathieu Garon. Garon was caught out of the crease after Hendricks whiffed the shot.
With the minutes winding down in the first period, Steve Downie made a textbook pass through traffic and Teddy Purcell took the pass and tapped it in past Vokoun to tie the game.
The Lightning need to avoid those ugly open ice passes in the second period especially if it wants to eliminate turnovers that could lead to goals for the Capitals.