The first five shots in this game belonged to the Washington Capitals, however, mid way through the first period, the Tampa Bay Lightning began to pester Tomas Vokoun, having a 15-8 shot advantage following the first Washington shots. Vokoun was forced to make some tough saves, including a handful of consecutive tries from Tom Pyatt. Brett Connolly was active as well, with four shots in the first period.
But, it was the Capitals that got on the board first when Keith Acouin took advantage of a bad bounce that hit his stick and leg, eventually beating Dustin Tokarski with 2:52 left in period.
Tokarski faced 13 shots in the opening period, letting in one on a fluky play. Other than that, he handled the puck well and made some key saves to keep this a one goal game.
Vokoun looks in the zone tonight and if the Lightning are going to get any past him, it will have to crash the net and avoid taking too many passes. It’s going to take some ugly goals or rebound chances to beat Vokoun tonight.