Caps double-up Tampa

Deuces were wild for the Washington Capitals on their visit to the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night.

T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom each struck for two goals in a 6-3 win for the Caps over the Bolts.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 50th and 51st goals of the season – file photo by Brent Clark

“They’ve got a good team, they are the best team in the League right now,” Washington forward Tom Wilson said. “They have had our number this year so far (Tampa Bay won the first two games), so we wanted to come in tonight and just feel good at our game, and I think we did that tonight.”

The big deuce was Alex Ovechkin who scored his 50th and 51st goals of the season; he now has eight 50-goal campaigns in the NHL.

The Caps lead the New York Islanders by three points for the top spot in the Metro Division.

The Caps made a statement in the opening frame with three unanswered goals.

“Obviously you want to score as early as possible, but, you know, I had chances before, but I knew it was going eventually come, especially when the guys know I had 49, so they try to find me all the time,” Ovechkin said. “So thanks to them.”-

Braden Holtby made 25 saves to get the win.

“I think [against] Tampa in general and a lot of the games going forward here, that first goal is going to be important,” Oshie said. “To get that momentum shift on to your side, especially on the road, early in the game is only going to help you.”

J.T. Miller, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov scored for Tampa.

“We just didn’t play well enough to win,” Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said. “Whether we’re playing Washington, [the] Boston [Bruins], [the] Toronto [Maple Leafs], whatever, you play the way we did the first half of the game, you’re not going to win.”

[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Lightning highlights]

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves in the loss.

“In the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs, you can’t afford to take five minutes off or 10 minutes, let alone a period. We were not ready to go there for the first period, and it kills your chances, for sure,” Ryan McDonagh said after the loss.