WASHINGTON _ And just like that, we're back to all square.
Just a couple of days ago, Tampa Bay was hanging over the edge of the cliff, barely hanging on with a couple of fingertips. As we cued up the dramatic music and waited for the long fall to the crashing waves below, the Lightning did what they usually does in such bleak conditions.
Like some hockey version of Indiana Jones, the Lightning triumphantly pulled their way back to safety and are now eagerly in search of hockey's holiest grail.
The Lightning beat the Caps 4-2 in Thursday night's Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final. That wrapped up back-to-back victories in the nation's capital to even this best-of-seven series at 2 games each.
Now it's a best-of-three with the Lighting back to having home-ice advantage, starting with Game 5 Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
Here's the thing: the Lightning had absolutely no business winning this game. The only reason they did was because of goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. It was a classic goalie-stealing-a-game victory. Alex Killorn's goal with 8:09 left in the third was the winner of a game it's still hard to believe Tampa Bay won.
The Lightning will gladly take it. And they will gladly take a series tied at 2.
Then again, none of this should come as any great surprise. This is what the Lightning have done in recent postseason history. They back itself into a corner, losing games you never think they will lose, only to crawl out of danger.
Like this series. The Lightning lost the first two games at home. Neither game looked even a little competitive. Vasilevskiy looked leaky. The Lightning at even-strength looked short-handed. Everything that could have gone wrong pretty much did go wrong. All that was left was for the Lightning to turn on their blinker and turn off at the next exit.
But then they showed up in Washington like a brand new team.
The turnaround starts with Vasilevskiy, who has been nothing but brilliant since the series shifted locations.
Meantime, the rest of the Lightning's best players _ names such as Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman _ have continued to be the Lightning's best players.
The Lightning got off to an uneven start, giving up a goal to Dmitry Orlov on a bomb from the point only 4:28 into the game.
Only 1:10 after Orlov gave the Caps a lead and turned the Capital One Arena into a frenzy, the Lightning came right back.
A tick-tack-toe passing play resulted in an easy tap-in goal for Point _ his seventh of these playoffs.
Then the captain continued his hot streak. Stamkos knocked in a rebound on the power play for his seventh of the playoffs and his sixth goal in the past seven postseason games.
So there the Lightning were after one, leading by a goal. And there were the Caps, getting booed of the ice by a home crowd that has seen the Caps blow series leads before. It had the feel of the series-tying Lightning victory.
But then came the second period completely dominated by the Caps. Incredibly, they scored only one goal _ a partial breakaway goal by Evgeny Kuznetsov that beat Vasilevskiy between the pads.
For the rest of the period, an acrobatic Vasilevskiy somehow kept the Caps off the board, while Washington goalie Braden Holtby could've taken a nap. At one point, the Lightning went 21 minutes without a shot on goal.
But the Lightning hung around and hung around until Killorn's winner and an empty-netter wrapped up an incredible victory to get the Lightning back to all square.
Did you expect anything else?
