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Fleischmann, Semin spark Caps to rout of Lightning

Mar 18, 2007 - 10:17 PM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Tomas Fleischmann and Alexander Semin each dominated a period and the Washington Capitals did the same to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Fleischmann scored a pair of goals in the first period and Semin recorded a hat trick in the second session as the Capitals posted a 7-1 victory over the Lightning.

Tampa Bay came into the game having lost two straight and four of six. The Lightning must have figured they would break their slide against the Capitals, having won five of the last six meetings but it was not to be.

Fleischmann opened the scoring 5:31 into the first period and made it 2-0 eight minutes later. Semin then took over in the middle session.

"Seems to me like everything was going my way tonight," Fleischmann said. "I try to take advantage of that. I should have put a third goal in there, but it didn't happen. But I'm very happy. If you play more, you get more confidence on the ice, and you do more things with the puck."

Semin tallied three times in the first 8:18 of the second period. A first-round pick by Washington in 2002, Semin has 37 goals this season.

Alexandre Giroux and Boyd Gordon scored in the third period for Washington.

Olaf Kolzig made 30 saves for the Capitals. Washington, already eliminated from playoff contention in the Eastern Conference, is 2-0-1 since the veteran goaltender returned to the ice after missing 13 games with a knee injury.

"I think the addition of Kolzig in goal is big," Washington coach Glen Hanlon said. "There's something about reliability there. Brent (Johnson) played well, but Olie is a hard person to replace."

"I thought we did a terrific job tonight," Kolzig said. "That team is always known for coming out the first five minutes of every period and establishing the tempo, and we didn't give them any life at the beginning of the game, the beginning of the second, the beginning of the third. It was a great, great team effort - one of the best games we've played in a long, long time."

Filip Kuba scored a power-play goal in the second period for Tampa Bay, which entered the game four points behind Atlanta in the Southeast Division.

Atlanta extended its lead to six points with an overtime victory over Buffalo on Sunday but Lightning coach John Tortorella was already looking toward his team's next game.

"We are already thinking about the (New York) Islanders and that's the way you have to go about it," Tortorella said. "We are not going to overanalyze. I think that sometimes these games, it may sound a little silly, but it may be a blessing sometimes to just put things in perspective as far as where we are as a hockey club."