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WASHINGTON (AP) Facing elimination at home Mark Stone Jersey , the Washington Capitals looked determined to hit everything that moved in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final.The goal was to finish checks on Tampa Bay Lightning players as much as possible, though at one point Devante Smith-Pelly decked Dan Girardi and took teammate Jay Beagle down with him.”I apologized to him,” Smith-Pelly said. ”I said sorry. He didn’t seem to care.”Sorry, not sorry.The Capitals made no apologies for taking the body and grinding out a physical 3-0 victory Monday night that tied the playoff series and set up a deciding Game 7. T.J. Oshie had a goal on the power play and into an empty net, Smith-Pelly scored a back-breaker and Braden Holtby stopped all 24 shots, but it was the bruising style that kept the Capitals alive and could still pay more dividends.”You’ve got to wear them down,” Smith-Pelly said. ”Every game, if guys are going to be playing 25, 30 minutes, it’s tough when you’re getting hit every single shift. We’ve been on the body all game and all series. If it shows up in Game 7 where guys are starting to get tired, then it was all worth it.”Game 7 is Wednesday night at Tampa Bay. The winner faces the Vegas Golden Knights, who are in the Stanley Cup Final in their first season.Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and Brooks Orpik led the charge in the grueling Game 6, throwing their bodies around all night like human wrecking balls. Orpik separated Cedric Paquette from the puck twice on one shift, Ovechkin leveled rookie Yanni Gourde and Wilson was his usual self Youth Matt Duchene Jersey , dishing out a handful of crushing body checks.The Capitals outhit the Lightning 39-19 and outshot them 34-24, bruising and battering them all over the ice.”It’s desperation, really,” Orpik said. ”You try to empty the tank as much as you can. That’s probably one area where we have an edge is the size and physical play.”That edge was noticeable in Game 6 when Washington fired up an already-raucous crowd well before Oshie’s power-play goal 15:12 into the second period. While Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was again on top of his game in stopping 31 of 33 shots, Orpik said the Capitals wanted to give back to fans for their energy and did so by laying out Lightning players.From Wilson’s big hit on Paquette on his first shift through the time Smith-Pelly scored with 9:58 left, the physical play took a toll on the Lightning, who didn’t have the energy left to muster a late comeback. Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said simply the Capitals ”executed their game plan” and the Lightning didn’t respond.”They played with that desperate hockey and we should have matched it and we didn’t,” winger Ryan Callahan said. ”They played like their lives were on the line, and we played like we had another chance and that’s unfortunate, but we’ve got to change the script now in Game 7.”Tampa Bay had no answer for the physicality with a hit disparity coach Jon Cooper chalked up as, ”Somebody was engaged and somebody wasn’t.” The Lightning also couldn’t solve Holtby, who was at his best on a handful of deflection attempts to record his first shutout of these playoffs.”I was just trying to stay in the moment, focus on one puck at a time,” Holtby said. ”I try and stay the same level through the game.”The Lightning missed a chance to close out an opponent for the first time in these playoffs. They eliminated New Jersey and Boston in five games apiece but are now on the brink themselves.The Capitals improved to 10-2 in the Ovechkin/Nicklas Backstrom era when facing elimination any time before Game 7. They’re 3-7 in Game 7 over that time but will obviously take their chances after grinding their way back to 3-3 in the series.”I think it’s great that we’re close,” Oshie said. ”I think both teams for the most part figured out what works against the other team. It’s just a matter of who’s going to play longer Mike Condon Jersey , harder and do more of it.”NOTES: Washington improved to 4-5 at home in the playoffs. The Lightning dropped to 5-2 on the road. … An assist on Oshie’s first goal extended Capitals C Evgeny Kuznetsov’s point streak to nine games, tied with Backstrom in 2009 for the longest in franchise playoff history. … F Andre Burakovsky returned to the Capitals lineup after being a healthy scratch for Game 5, replacing Alex Chiasson.— NEW YORK (AP) — After setting a career high for points last season, Josh Bailey has picked up right where he left off.Bailey scored a short-handed goal in the second period and then the only goal in a shootout to lift the New York Islanders over the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Thursday night.Thomas Greiss made 29 saves as New York swept the home-and-home set and improved to 5-0-0 against Metropolitan Division rivals. The Islanders and Penguins both have 15 points atop the division.“It was a good win for us. We had great goaltending and we did a lot of things well,” Bailey said. “They obviously have a really good team over there. Division games always have a little more added to them.”Islanders captain Anders Lee gave his team a 2-1 lead at 10:11 of the third with his fifth goal of the season, assisted by Thomas Hickey and Brock Nelson.Evgeni Malkin tied it at 2 with a power-play goal at 12:02. Kris Letang and Phil Kessel had assists on Malkin’s seventh goal, which extended his point streak to nine games.Malkin leads the Penguins with 20 points. He has points in 10 of his 11 games this season, and 15 of his last 19 against the Islanders.Dominik Simon scored first for the Penguins on a power play at 6:20 of the first, tapping a rebound past Greiss. Jake Guentzel and Olli Maatta assisted. Simon extended his point streak to five games with third goal of the season.Bailey tied it with a slick short-handed goal off a splendid pass off the right boards from Casey Cizikas at 14:46 of the second.Bailey skated in on Matt Murray before sliding the puck between the goalie’s pads for his third goal of the season to extend his point streak to seven games. The 29-year-old forward, in his 11th season with the Islanders, leads the team with 13 points. A first-round pick by New York in 2008, he had 71 points last season — 18 goals and 53 assists.The Islanders, playing just their fourth home game of the season, were coming off a 6-3 road win over the Penguins on Tuesday and a three-game division trip with wins at Washington, Carolina and Pittsburgh. They are 4-0-1 in their last five games overall.“It says a lot about everyone putting in the effort and putting in the work Ryan Dzingel Jersey ,” Lee said. “We are playing good hockey. The commitment level is there.”Greiss especially kept the Islanders in this one with an acrobatic glove save on Kessel and a breakaway stop on defenseman Jamie Oleksiak in the second period.“We generated a fair amount of scoring chances,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It was one of those games where there wasn’t a lot of room out there.”Greiss also made two great saves in overtime against his former team, including a denial of defenseman Jack Johnson in front and a glove save on Kessel. The goaltender also managed to disrupt Sidney Crosby on a breakaway with a poke check.“I guess he didn’t expect that. You’ve got to mix it up every once in a while,” said Greiss, who improved to 3-2-0. “You just react.”Greiss’ play also impressed Islanders coach Barry Trotz.“He made real key saves at key times, key moments for us,” Trotz said. “Those are pretty good people coming at him and he didn’t flinch.”The Islanders outshot the Penguins 10-9 in the first period. Pittsburgh had a 13-8 advantage in the second and each team had six shots in the third. Pittsburgh had a 3-2 edge in overtime.Sullivan agreed that credit had to go to Greiss for his performance in overtime.“They are elite players that have great finishing ability,” Sullivan said, referring to Crosby and Kessel. “Those were two great saves.”NOTES: Letang returned after missing Tuesday’s game with a lower-body injury. By playing in his 692nd game, the 31-year-old defenseman passed former Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for eighth place on the franchise list. … Islanders forward Jordan Eberle played his 600th career game. … The Islanders scratched forward Ross Johnston, defenseman Luca Sbisa and goaltender Robin Lehner. … Pittsburgh scratched defenseman Juuso Riikola.UP NEXTPenguins: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.Islanders: Host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.