Last night’s Caps game was pretty crazy. After going up 3-1 in the second period, Tampa Bay got a late goal to head to intermission behind one. Naturally, the hated Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavilier (I don’t care about the spelling) put the Lightning ahead. With only a few minutes to go, it got interesting. Tampa Bay got a delay of game penalty which gave the Caps new life. Goaltender Brent Johnson was pulled in favor of an extra skater, but another penalty was called, so Johnson went back out for a little bit before getting pulled again. The Caps had three more skaters than the Lightning, who somehow cleared the puck. It was headed for the goal, but hit an official! The Caps got it back and Alexander Semin put the puck in with less than a minute to go to force overtime.

Heading into overtime, the Caps were still on the power play. They could not convert though and wound up in a 5 on 3 situation (payback from the refs). They were able to hold off the Lightning to force a shootout, so we know how the story ends, right? Well this time, the “gimmick” kept going and going. In total, it took 11 rounds until Tampa Bay got one through Johnson. By that time the Capitals had scholar and gentleman Donald Brashear out there.

It was a tough loss, but incredibly entertaining. Was it just me or did it seem like a lot of shoots were hitting the pipes last night? I will be very interested to see how they respond on Hockey Night In Washington vs. the Islanders. Get your recaps at Washington Hockey Daily, an aggregator of Caps coverage.