Alex Ovechkin, Capitals Grab Decisive Win over Lightning in Game 1

With a trip to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final on the line, the Washington Capitals struck first by winning Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final 4-2 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night.

Washington controlled the game from the start, having several chances early on in the game. It wasn't until 7:28 had gone by, however, that the Capitals were able to beat Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Defenseman Michal Kempny gave his team the lead with his first career playoff goal by ripping one through traffic from just inside the blue line:

The Capitals are no strangers to drawing first blood during these playoffs, as the team's PR staff pointed out:

They entered the game 6-3 when scoring first this postseason. That trend would continue on this night.

Tampa Bay appeared to have the equalizer just seconds before intermission on a ridiculous play by Nikita Kucherov. However, the goal was wiped out as the Lightning had too many men on the ice.

It turned out to be a huge reversal of fortune, as Washington's lethal power-play unit struck immediately. The Capitals won the ensuing faceoff, sending the puck over to Alexander Ovechkin, who sniped it home to double his team's lead with just three seconds to play in the opening period:

From 1-1 to 2-0 just like that.

To make matters worse for the home team, Washington would add on to its lead just 2:40 into the second:

The top-seeded Lightning only fell further behind after handing the dangerous Washington power-play unit another opportunity:

At that point, it was four goals for Washington, four shots on goal for Tampa Bay.

In the third period, the Lightning found their offense. They came out of the second intermission aggressive and finally got on the board with just over 16 minutes remaining when Steven Stamkos capitalized on a power play.

Vasilevskiy shook off a rough two periods and kept the lead from growing in the third. With solid goalkeeping, the Lightning managed to chip away even more just past the midway point in the period when Ondrej Palat breat Braden Holtby with a wrist shot: 

But it was too little, too late.

Tampa Bay took too long to recover from the disallowed goal at the end of the first. Allowing a goal just seconds later sucked the energy out of the Amalie Arena crowd.

The bright side is the Lightning have something to build on after playing well in the final period.

If Tampa Bay is going to win this series, it is going to have to learn from the Columbus Blue Jackets' mistake: stay out of the box. Washington's first two power plays of Game 1 lasted a total of 43 seconds before the lamp was lit. The Capitals, now with 15 goals on the man advantage this postseason, beat the Blue Jackets in the first round behind the power play-unit—and the Lightning saw evidence of that quickly.

Kempny, Ovechkin, Jay Beagle and Lars Eller scored for the Capitals, with the captain picking up an assist as well. As strong as Holtby has been in net for Washington, this contest was over before he even broke a sweat. He finished the game with 19 saves.

Game 2 gets underway Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET.