Capitals beat the Lightning 4

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Carlson scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 11:31 left, Charlie Lindgren made 32 saves in another strong performance when his team needed him and the Washington Capitals kept their playoff hopes alive by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Saturday.

Sonny Milano scored twice and Nic Dowd provided an insurance goal with 3:14 remaining as the Capitals won for just the second time in nine games to at least temporarily move into the Eastern Conference’s second and final wild-card spot. They may need to win their final two games of the season to return to the postseason after missing last year.

Beating Tampa Bay was essential to just make that possible. A 5-on-3 power play in the third period gave Washington its best chance to crack 2019 Vezina Trophy-winning and 2021 playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Carlson did just that with a blast from the point after the first Lightning penalty had expired.