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DAMIAN CRISTODEROLIGHTNING 6, CAPITALS 3: A spearing penalty helps Tampa Bay rally with four goals in the third.
WASHINGTON - Lightning center Martin Cibak pointed to the spot on his protective cup to indicate exactly where he was speared by Washington's Rick Berry.
"He got me straight on," Cibak said. "If I didn't have protection, I don't know what I would be doing."
As it turned out, Cibak cheered the two power-play goals Tampa Bay scored on the five-minute major penalty that sparked a four-goal third period and a 6-3 victory Monday night at the MCI Center.
Talk about taking one for the team.
"He was hurting pretty good," right wing Martin St. Louis said. "Nobody likes to be speared like that."
"We got two goals," said Cibak, whose discomfort quickly subsided. "It was beautiful."
Dave Andreychuk scored the winner 5:15 into the period, 73 seconds after Fredrik Modin tied the score at 3. It was Andreychuk's 14th goal, 627th of his career and third power-play goal in two games, increasing his NHL record to 266.
St. Louis and Ruslan Fedotenko also scored in the period. St. Louis' goal was his 30th. He also had three assists for his third four-point game.
Vinny Lecavalier had a power-play goal and two assists and Darryl Sydor scored his first goal for Tampa Bay, which snapped a two-game streak of overtime losses and increased its points streak to eight games (5-0-1-2).
The Lightning also doused Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig, who had allowed just seven goals on 195 shots (a .964 save percentage) in his previous five starts.
It wasn't lost on Tampa Bay that Washington was the last team to which it lost inregulation, and the 2-1 defeat on Feb. 3 snapped another eight-game points streak.
"The last time we were here we dropped our streak and only got six or seven chances," St. Louis said. "We didn't want to come here and have that happen again."
It was a bit of an uphill battle as Anson Carter gave the Capitals a 3-2 lead on his tip-in goal two minutes into the third period.
Forty-eight seconds later, Berry responded to a small cross-check thrown by Cibak during a battle for the puck along the side boards by spinning and pitchforking his opponent.
"He took one pretty hard," Lecavalier said. "It was a cheap shot and that guy deserved the penalty and we took advantage of it."
Berry, who also received a game misconduct, said he let his teammates down.
"I never intentionally tried to spear anybody," he said.
"Rick feels bad," Capitals coach Glen Hanlon said. "But he is the epitome of a team player. He's not happy, but you don't want to throw away all the good things he's done."
Not to throw away the good things the Lightning did, but defensive coverages in the defensive zone and during neutral-zone transitions were not always sharp.
Coach John Tortorella said he did not want to nitpick, but
"We as a coaching staff know you can't play a perfect game, but when you see the same mistakes time and time again throughout the game, and it's a big part of what your team concept is, you need to address it, and it will be addressed."
On the other hand, "We did a lot of good things," he said.
Such as going 3-for-5 on the power play and outshooting Washington 14-2 in the third period and scoring goals after getting to the net.
Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin had to make only 18 saves, and he was unscreened and beaten to the short side on Washington's first goal. But he was otherwise solid in a first period in which the Capitals pressed the play. And he made an important stop of Robert Lang's shot from the slot to preserve a 2-2 tie with 6:59 left in the second period.
The only intrigue by game's end was hearing what pitch Cibak's voice would attain while speaking to reporters. We're happy to report everything was fine.
"I'll take it," Cibak said of the spear, "for five minutes to help the team."