WASHINGTON _ Down. Way down. Pretty much out. Pretty much given up for dead.
That's how the Lightning arrived in Washington for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. They had lost the first two games. At home and badly.
Nothing could be taken from the first two losses to lead anyone to believe the Lightning had a chance in this series. It seemed almost certain that the Lightning would be playing golf this weekend instead of hockey.
But Tuesday night, the Lightning did what they always do when things are most grim. Against the odds, and against predictions, they clawed their way back to life.
They might not win the series. Then again, they just might.
We have a series again. More importantly, the Lightning are alive again thanks to a 4-2 victory over the Caps in Game 3.
All the stars came out. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. The dynamic duo of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. The workhorse, Victor Hedman. And the kid, Brayden Point, who just might be the best player in all of these playoffs.
In a performance reminiscent of successful playoffs past, the Lightning showed the most foolish thing you can do is count them out, even when counting them out seems like the perfectly natural thing to do.
The Lightning isn't out of the woods yet. They're still is down 2-1 in the series. Another big game in Washington waits Thursday night.
But cancel those tee times. Tampa Bay is far from through playing hockey. In fact, when the Lightning went to bed Tuesday night after Game 3's gutsy victory, there was plenty of reason to feel good.
Quite the change from when they woke up Tuesday morning.
The Caps were so dominant in the first two games that the Lightning's confidence had to be shaken. Yet, Lightning coach Jon Cooper said before Game 3 that his players weren't upset or even frustrated. He said they were angry.
And for the first time in the series, they played like it. Right from the get go.
Start off with Vasilevskiy. Toasted for 10 goals in five periods in the first two games, the Lightning netminder was leaky enough that there were questions about whether he was out of gas or, at the very least, out of good saves. But he has rarely looked steadier, shutting down the Caps in a first period that could've buried the Lightning.
He held the Caps scoreless long enough to allow the Lightning to get rolling. Taking advantage of two power plays, Stamkos and Kucherov ripped one-timers that Caps goalie Braden Holtby likely only heard, but surely never saw.
By midway through the game, the lead was extended to 3-0 when Kucherov completely dominated a shift and set up Hedman for a wide-open goal.
That pretty much cinched it.
There were a couple of tense moments for Tampa Bay, but Point's huge goal late in the second period put the exclamation point on a huge Lightning victory.
