Washington Capitals vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Regular season · Saturday, October 3, 2026 · Benchmark International Arena

WashingtonCapitalsAway

1–3

Final

SOG 21–30

Tampa BayLightningHome

The Spot · MNMT

Recap

Lightning ride fast start past Capitals 3-1

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 on Saturday night at Benchmark International Arena, never trailing and outshooting the visitors 30-21. Charle-Edouard D'Astous opened the scoring at 2:26 of the first period, and Conor Geekie made it 2-0 at 16:30 with what proved to be the game-winner. Both first-period goals were set up by Brandon Hagel and Jake Guentzel.

Justin Sourdif got the Capitals on the board at 7:04 of the second, assisted by Jakob Chychrun and Boone Jenner, but that was all Washington could manage. Jake Guentzel iced it with an empty-net goal at 17:55 of the third, his first of the season, with assists from Nikita Kucherov and John Carlson.

Guentzel finished with three points and Hagel with two. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves on 21 shots for the win and first-star honours, while Charlie Lindgren stopped 27 of 29 in taking the loss. Both teams sit 1-1-0 on the season.

Written with AI from official NHL data and checked against it. The box score and play-by-play are the official record. How we write these

Goals	1st	2nd	3rd	T	SOG
WSH	0	1	0	1	21
TBL	2	0	1	3	30

Three stars

Scoring

1st period

Charle-Edouard D'Astous (1)Brandon Hagel (1), Jake Guentzel (1)0–102:26 TBL
Conor Geekie (1)Brandon Hagel (2), Jake Guentzel (2)0–216:30 TBL

2nd period

Justin Sourdif (1)Jakob Chychrun (2), Boone Jenner (1)1–207:04 WSH

3rd period

Jake Guentzel (1)Nikita Kucherov (1), John Carlson (1)1–317:55 TBL · EN

Tired legs

Seconds into the shift for every skater on the ice at each goal. Taller bar, longer shift.

0–20s20–40s40–60s60–80s80s+

GoalWSH on iceTBL on iceDefenders’ longest

0–1 TBL

1st 2:26 · D'Astous

Dubois 0:59

NormalDubois 0:59

0–2 TBL

1st 16:30 · Geekie

Jenner 0:35

Fresh legsJenner 0:35

1–2 WSH

2nd 7:04 · Sourdif

Lilleberg 0:22

Fresh legsLilleberg 0:22

1–3 TBL

3rd 17:55 · EN · Guentzel

Ovechkin 0:23

Empty netOvechkin 0:23

Hover or tap a bar for the skater.

Across the league. Share of 5v5 unblocked shots that went in, by how far into his shift the defending team’s longest-serving skater was (2025–26).

3.9%

5.8%

6.5%

7.1%

7.3%

0–20s20–40s40–60s60–80s80s+

1.9×

Shots against a skater 80s+ into his shift go in 1.9 times as often as against fresh legs (7.3% vs 3.9%).

30%

of 5v5 goals came with a defender 60s+ into his shift.

Team stats

WSHTBL

21Shots on goal30

38%Faceoff %63%

0/2Power play0/3

25Penalty minutes13

24Hits30

14Blocked shots19

12Giveaways20

3Takeaways5

Penalties

1st 08:35Justin Sourdif · holding2 min
1st 18:02Ryan McDonagh · holding2 min
2nd 02:43Aliaksei Protas · tripping2 min
2nd 13:54Emil Lilleberg · fighting5 min
2nd 13:54Vincent Desharnais · fighting5 min
2nd 14:56Pontus Holmberg · unsportsmanlike conduct2 min
2nd 14:56Jakob Chychrun · unsportsmanlike conduct2 min
3rd 00:32Zemgus Girgensons · roughing2 min
3rd 00:32Tom Wilson · roughing2 min
3rd 08:57Brayden Point · holding2 min
3rd 12:56Martin Fehérváry · roughing2 min
3rd 17:55Tom Wilson · misconduct10 min

Season series

Washington Capitals

Washington Capitals skaters

22Boone JennerC	0	1	1	0	3	0	2	0	38	14:57
34Justin SourdifC	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	100	12:24
6Jakob ChychrunD	0	1	1	-1	2	0	1	2	–	27:11
8Alex OvechkinL	0	0	0	-1	0	3	0	0	–	13:34
9Ryan LeonardR	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	–	14:10
17Dylan StromeC	0	0	0	-1	1	2	1	0	42	18:02
21Aliaksei ProtasL	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	2	–	15:21
25Jordan KyrouR	0	0	0	-2	1	0	1	0	–	14:45
43Tom WilsonR	0	0	0	-1	2	3	1	12	–	17:49
62Ilya ProtasL	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	50	09:55
72Anthony BeauvillierR	0	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	–	11:37
80Pierre-Luc DuboisC	0	0	0	-2	1	2	0	0	25	18:34
89Alex TuchR	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	–	17:53
3Matt RoyD	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	–	14:22
27Timothy LiljegrenD	0	0	0	-1	1	0	3	0	–	17:11
42Martin FehérváryD	0	0	0	-1	0	1	2	2	–	18:11
44Cole HutsonD	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	–	21:03
73Vincent DesharnaisD	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	5	–	15:25

Washington Capitals goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	TOI
48Logan ThompsonG		0	0	0	–	00:00
79Charlie LindgrenG	L	29	27	2	.931	57:36

Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning skaters

59Jake GuentzelC	1	2	3	+3	2	1	1	0	60	18:18
38Brandon HagelL	0	2	2	+2	6	0	0	0	100	22:07
86Nikita KucherovR	0	1	1	+1	3	0	0	0	100	22:46
94Conor GeekieC	1	0	1	0	2	3	0	0	67	09:10
51Charle-Edouard D'AstousD	1	0	1	0	3	0	1	0	–	13:47
74John CarlsonD	0	1	1	+1	0	0	1	0	–	20:35
21Brayden PointC	0	0	0	+2	3	0	1	2	38	20:32
25Jeffrey VielL	0	0	0	-1	1	8	1	0	–	07:34
28Zemgus GirgensonsC	0	0	0	0	1	4	3	2	67	14:27
29Pontus HolmbergR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	100	15:25
71Anthony CirelliC	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	70	17:42
93Gage GoncalvesC	0	0	0	-1	0	1	0	0	–	15:47
95Ilya MikheyevR	0	0	0	0	2	5	1	0	–	13:57
27Ryan McDonaghD	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	–	15:52
77Victor HedmanD	0	0	0	+1	1	0	4	0	–	13:34
78Emil LillebergD	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	5	–	10:30
81Erik CernakD	0	0	0	+1	4	3	3	0	–	20:34
90J.J. MoserD	0	0	0	+1	0	1	0	0	–	19:23

Tampa Bay Lightning goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	TOI
35Dennis HildebyG		0	0	0	–	00:00
88Andrei VasilevskiyG	W	21	20	1	.952	60:00