Brouwer’s hat trick lifts Washington to 4-3 win over Tampa Bay All week long the Capitals talked about taking advantage of four games at home against struggling teams that were facing taxing schedules.
So far, so good. Just five minutes into Friday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lighting, Washington had an early one-goal lead and was already working on its third power play. No better way to keep a demoralized team seething with frustration. In the end, a Troy Brouwer hat trick was just enough to hold off the Lighting in a 4-3 Caps victory at Verizon Center.
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It was the first hat trick for Brouwer as an NHL player. He last scored three goals in a game while still in the AHL with Norfolk on Dec. 20, 2006. And Washington needed every one of those goals as Tampa Bay scored twice in the final 3 minutes, 24 seconds to make it a game.
“I’m pretty excited,” Brouwer said. “I was close once before. It’s a special feat. But at the same time I’m excited about the win tonight – two points closer to Florida for first in our division, and that’s what we’re really striving for.”
Indeed, the Caps improved to 23-17-2 with the victory and now have 48 standings points. With the first-place Florida Panthers (21-14-8, 50 points) losing at home to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, Washington is just two points behind in the Southeast Division and 6-2 in its last eight games. It can move into a tie for first by beating Carolina at home on Sunday evening. The Panthers next play Monday night.
Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring for the Caps at 3:52 of the first period. He kept a clearing attempt in the offensive zone by a fraction of an inch, but stepped inside the blueline and rifled a shot past Tampa Bay goalie Dwayne Roloson (16 saves, 19 shots.). Just 1:53 later, Brouwer recorded his first goal with a bad-angle shot that somehow slipped through Roloson’s pads on the power play.
Later, Brouwer was in prime position in front of the net in the second period. When Roloson couldn’t control a Brooks Laich shot, Brouwer slammed home the rebound for a 3-0 advantage. But a goal late in the second by Tom Pyatt stemmed the tide and gave the Lightning some momentum. Steven Stamkos extended his NHL-best goal total to 30 at 16:36 of the third period. Brouwer added an empty-net goal with 1:00 left to make it 4-2. It looked like the game was over.
“[Brouwer] played exceptional tonight,” teammate Matt Hendricks said. “I don’t know if I’d call it his best game. I’ve seen him have quite a few good games. It worked out for him tonight. He put himself in the right areas like he always does and tonight it paid off, so I’m very happy for him. What a tremendous accomplishment.”
But Tampa Bay forward Vinny Lecavalier did push another goal across with 11 seconds left to make it 4-3 and after a faceoff victory the Lightning had one last chance. But the puck deflected off the side of the net and kicked out in front of Caps goalie Tomas Vokoun (28 saves) just as time expired.
“They’re a good team and that’s what we didn’t want to do. We didn’t want to put them on the power play,” Vokoun said. “A team like that always has a chance to come back into the game. Obviously, them scoring [11] seconds to go is frustrating. But you know what? I’ll take that then [it] being a tying goal. It’s something you feel good about.”
