WASHINGTON The conditions were ripe for the Capitals to blow the Eastern Conference Miami Dolphins Jersey finals wide open Tuesday night. It wouldnt have taken much to ignite the home crowd, get the players feeding off the frenzy and vice versa, and shoving the Lightning into a hole that would be nearly impo sible to climb out of.The Caps never lit that fire, though. The brief flames kept getting extinguished by Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, in a 180-degree turn from the series first two games. He stopped the Caps from cashing in the chances they had, never let them jump ahead, never let the fans in Capital One Arena overwhelm the scene and kept his team in it until it could take over at the other end.Vasilevskiy came pretty close to saving the Lightnings season with that prevented them from going down three games to none. To be fair to the rest of the Lightning, though, he had a lot of help at his end, as much as he had from the goal scorers who broke the game open.NHL PLAYOFFS: When we’re letting your goalie see pucks and eliminating those Grade-A (scoring chances), its going to help,”Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. I thought he was in the zone tonight right from the get-go, but I thought our team helped him out this time, where I dont think we help him out in Games 1 and 2.”Truthfully, Vasilevskiy didnt have to perform magic very often, but for 2 1/2 periods, he stopped everything, and it was 3-0 and looking very lopsided before the Caps finally beat him.Keeping them scorele s was never more crucial than in the first 10 minutes, when Preston Williams Jersey most of the game was played in the Lightnings end. The Caps didnt let the Lightning get into a rhythm on offense and had them on their heels on defense. Despite all that pre sure, the Lightning never let the Caps get off many clean shots, settle into any set plays, chase any rebounds or get loose on odd-man rushes or breakaways.Their biggest early test came nine minutes in, when Anton Stralman boarded Tom Wilson minutes after Wilson had delivered a big hit of his own in front of Vasilevskiy and gave the Caps a power play. (Several Caps players and coach Barry Trotz were, Albert Wilson Jersey then and after the game, ,which was at least borderline and left Wilson down and in pain for about half a minute. “I can tell you, if its the other way around, you better believe (the league office is) looking at it,”Wilson said. Theres no doubt theres contact with my head.)The situation had “potential momentum swing” for the Caps written all over it, but Vasilevskiy and the Lightning killed off the penalty almost routinely. Two minutes after that, they went on the power play Emmanuel Ogbah Jersey , and Steven Stamkos blistered a one-timer le s than a minute into it to give Tampa Bay a lead it never gave up.The Caps knew they had let their window to grasp total control of the game, and po sibly the series, close on them. The Lightnings backbreaker goals were in the second period, especially the two in the first 3:37, but the long stretch where they kept Washington scorele s set the tone.I think as soon as they got the lead, we tried to rush plays, make some plays through the neutral zone, said Washington star Alex Ovechkin, who took nine shots but never connected. But you can see how we get results we play smart, we play our game, we can control it.”Vasilevskiy was roasted for 10 goals in DeVante Parker Jersey the first two games in Tampa, although, again, Cooper put that more on the rest of the team. Vasilevskiy went into the game 3-1 on the road in the playoffs, however, after leading the NHL with 18road wins in the regular season. Home or away, the goalie showing up big when his team is down 2-0 is mandatory. No matter how much credit his defensemen and forechecking forwards earned, the Lightning needed Vasilevskiy to be what he has been throughout the regular season and playoffs.He was, and the hole the Lightning were in heading into Tuesday is no longeras deep or treacherous. Related Articles NHL playoffs 2018: Tired Alex Ovechkin narratives can be laid to rest with Capitals in East finals