Just when it looked like the Caps had figured out their power play woes, another bad line change cost them.
The referees negated Mike Knuble's apparent power play goal because of a penalty and Sean Bergenheim took advantage of a turnover in the Caps' defensive zone to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
When Randy Jones interfered with Jason Chimera at 7:13, the Caps went to their first power play of the night with a chance to break their 0-11 streak in the series. Knuble thought that he fixed the power play outage when he tucked the puck underneath Dwayne Roloson, but the referee waved the goal off when he realized that the Caps had too many men on the ice. Just like in Game 2, when a bad line change cost the Caps the game, another miscommunication cost them a much-needed early lead.
At 11:03, Bergenheim made the Caps pay for their sloppy pay and missed chance when Steve Downie stole the puck from Brooks Laich in the defensive zone and tapped it up to Bergenheim, who worked a give-and-go with Dominic Moore. Moore passed back to Bergenheim and he slipped the puck past Michal Neuvirth for his fifth goal of the playoffs.
Despite the score, shots are 13-8 in favor or Washington.