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Takeaways: Wilson, Capitals Rally For Big Win Over Lightning

Head coach Spencer Carbery didn’t like the Washington Capitals’ start to play on Wednesday. From there, things changed as D.C. rallied for a huge win.

Five different scorers stepped up, with Wilson playing hero late en route to a 5-4 win.

Here are all the takeaways from the victory.

Capitals Get Off To Rough Start In Tampa

It was a bit of a rough start to action in Tampa for the Capitals, who found themselves outshot and being dominated by the Lightning's top talent early. Despite a couple of good shifts in the first, sloppy play and turnovers would lead to scoring chances aplenty for Tampa, and ultimately, it cost D.C.

A blocked shot under pressure led to a turnover and 2-on-1 for the Bolts. Jake Guetnzel then found Brayden Point breaking away, and Point would then backhand a shot past Charlie Lindgren to give Tampa a 1-0 lead.

Later on, a lack of discipline again proved to be an issue, as Taylor Raddysh took a slashing call. Seconds into the power play, Point was left alone in front of the net while Lindgren was heavily screened, and Point scored his second on a lay-up and wide-open net to make it 2-0.

At the other end of the ice, Washington got a couple of decent shifts of pressure, but overall, failed to get much going offensively and couldn't solve Andrei Vasilevskiy after 20.

Capitals Pick It Up In Second Thanks To Third Line & Protas, But Poor Reads Costly

Washington, despite a continued lack of discipline, came back with a much better effort in the second.

The third line, in its best game yet, produced as Andrew Mangiapane scored to cut the lead to 2-1.

Minutes later, with the Capitals again going on the penalty kill, Aliaksei Protas got a break and scored his first career shorthanded goal to even the score.

However, Michael Eyssimont would make sure Tampa went into the third with the lead, sneaking the puck past Lindgren with just over 40 seconds to go in the frame. There was poor coverage on Eyssimont as he crashed the crease and got down low.

Capitals Fight To Rally In Third, Tom Wilson Plays Hero

Dylan Strome came in clutch again, hitting the 30-point mark to even the score at 3.

While Lindgren accidentally scored on his own net after to give the Lightning the lead back, John Carlson scored to make it 4-4.

Then, with under four minutes to go and the team on a four-minute power play, Tom Wilson deflected in a Jakob Chychrun to make it a 5-4 game. He has points in three of his last four and continues to step up with Alex Ovechkin out.

From there, Lindgren and Washington held down the fort for the win.

Top Shelf Takes

- Lars Eller and Hendrix Lapierre picked up assists for their second points in as many games.

- The Capitals power play has goals in six of the last seven outings.

- Jakob Chychrun has four points in his last two games.