WASHINGTON — Getting an extended 5-on-3 just after scoring seems like a gift, sure to shift momentum in a team’s favor. It didn’t work that way for the Lightning on Saturday, however.They were presented with 86 seconds of 5-on-3 not long after tying their game against the Capitals at 1 midway through the third period. But they squandered the two-man advantage, and the rest of the power-play time.Shortly after that, the Capitals scored and went on to win 3-1.“We have to get better at that,” Brayden Point said. “That has to be a goal, especially at that time of the game, and the way the game had gone so far. They were all over us, and we had a chance to put us up, maybe win a game, and we didn’t do it.”It was the Capitals who seized the opportunity, killing the penalty without giving up many chances. Just 48 seconds later, they regained the lead when Dmitry Orlov landed a one-timer from the left point through traffic.Nikita Kucherov cleaned up a broken play for his 200th career goal to tie the score at 1 and start the whole sequence with 10 minutes to play in the game. Just 35 seconds later, the Capitals’ Nick Jensen was called for interference, and then Lars Eller joined him in the box for delay of game. It was a prime opportunity for the Lightning, not only with the two-man advantage, but with two of the Capitals’ biggest penalty killers in the box.As the Capitals repeatedly cleared the puck, forcing the Lightning to continually regroup, the crowd in packed Capital One Arena got louder and louder.Lightning coach Jon Cooper took an unusual timeout with 11 seconds left on the two-man advantage. He used the opportunity to give the top power-play unit a breather and draw up a play.Victor Hedman had the best chance of the power play coming out of that timeout, but Braden Holtby made a great save and the first penalty expired.During a TV timeout shortly after the kill, Washington’s game operations staff played its “Unleash the Fury” hype video, and the crowd went wild.“It was a big moment there,” said Nic Dowd, who scored a shorthanded empty-netter with less than two minutes left. “We had a chance from going down a goal to potentially being on the kill again to getting out of it, and we gave ourselves the opportunity to score and win the game.”The 5-on-3 wasn’t the only missed opportunity for the Lightning; it was just the biggest one. The Capitals took seven penalties in the game, granting the Lightning 11:05 of power-play time. The Lightning, with the second-best power play in the league, didn’t score on any of them.“You get that many opportunities, you want to make it count,” Hedman said. “We’re a proud group, and we’re not happy with our performance on the power play (Saturday). We take it on us to go out there and get us goals, get us momentum. We didn’t do that. That’s on us.”Four of those Capitals penalties came in the third period, which was when the Lightning believed they were playing their better hockey. The first two periods were something of duds for Tampa Bay, which had only a combined 13 shots on net.The Lightning gave themselves another two-man advantage near the end, pulling goalie Curtis McElhinney when Jonas Siegenthaler was called for slashing with 3:48 left to play. But the only thing to come out of that was Dowd’s empty-netter, the one that secured a Capitals regular-season three-game sweep of the Lightning. Contact Diana C. Nearhos at dnearhos@tampabay.com . Follow @dianacnearhos . First Period—None. Penalties—Tampa Bay bench, served by Stamkos (Too Many Men on the Ice), 4:26; Ovechkin, Was (Hooking), 8:08; Stephens, Tam (High Sticking), 16:59; Wilson, Was (Interference), 18:47.Second Period—1, Washington, Gudas 0 (Eller, Siegenthaler), 4:40. Penalties—Hathaway, Was (Hooking), 12:14.Third Period—2, Tampa Bay, Kucherov 11 (Palat, Point), 10:00. 3, Washington, Orlov 2 (Vrana, Kuznetsov), 13:57. 4, Washington, Dowd 2 (Orlov, Wilson), 17:37 (en). Penalties—Rutta, Tam (Holding), 4:29; Jensen, Was (Interference), 10:35; Eller, Was (Delay of Game), 11:09; Siegenthaler, Was (Slashing), 16:12; Carlson, Was (Delay of Game), 18:51.Shots on Goal—Tampa Bay 6-7-14_27. Washington 13-16-6_35. Power-play opportunities—Tampa Bay 0 of 7; Washington 0 of 3. Goalies—Tampa Bay, McElhinney 3-3-2 (34 shots-32 saves). Washington, Holtby 16-4-4 (27-26). A—18,573 (18,277). T—2:33. Referees—Michael Markovic, Dean Morton. Linesmen—Devin Berg, Derek Nansen.
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