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TAMPA Thomas Vanek Jersey , Fla. (AP) The Tampa Bay Lightning stormed back in the Eastern Conference final against the Washington Capitals, thanks in part to a thriving power play and suddenly reliable penalty-killing unit.To regain control of the best-of-seven matchup that continues Saturday night, the Caps need a lift from their special teams, too.”The series is tied 2-2,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. ”It doesn’t matter how you got there.”Tampa Bay, which has taken two straight in a series in which the home team has yet to win, believes it hasn’t played its best.Washington was dominant in winning twice on the road, then sputtered – particularly on the Alex Ovechkin-led power play – while dropping the next two games at home.”I think we look at it realistically,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”I mean, I said to everybody in September, even yesterday, and they’re saying the same thing: Sign me up. Best-of-three, got a chance to maybe go to the Stanley Cup Final Womens Adam Larsson Jersey , sign me up.”I don’t think anybody thought the series would go four straight or anything like that. There’s two really high-quality teams that are going to go nose-to-nose,” Trotz added. ”There’s twists and turns in the road sometimes. … It’s just another layer of adversity. This group has taken on any adversity that has been thrown its way all year.”Since yielding three power-play goals in the first two games of the series, two of them in the closing seconds of a period, the Lightning have gone 7-for-7 killing penalties over the past two games.Not bad for a team that had one of the most potent power plays (third, 23.9 percent) in the NHL during the regular season, while also ranking among the league’s worst at killing penalties (28th, 76.1 percent).Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has a power-play goal in each of the first four games of the conference final.Six of his seven goals this postseason have come in man-advantage situations, including his franchise-best 11th career playoff power-play goal (snapping a tie with Martin St. Louis) in Game 4 on Thursday night.”Desperation. Realizing how important it is, especially in this series against the group that they have,” Stamkos said of the improved play on the penalty kill.”It starts with the goaltending, and then it starts with guys willing to sacrifice. I think it’s been a challenge,” Stamkos added. ”When the power play is going well like we are, the PK wants to step up and be just as good Cam Talbot Jersey , and vice versa when it’s the other way. … It’s been a lot of fun to watch.”Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 of 38 shots in Game 4. He has bounced back nicely since allowing 10 goals over five periods in the first two games.Center Nicklas Backstrom, who returned to Washington’s lineup Thursday night after missing four games with a hand injury, thinks the Capitals need to create more traffic in front of the Lightning goaltender.”He’s actually too good of a goalie if you’re going to shoot from outside with no traffic, so maybe we can get some more traffic and find these rebounds like we did the first couple of games,” Backstrom said.”We have pretty good chances. We just don’t execute,” Ovechkin said after the Washington power play was shut out for the second straight game. ”We tried. … We had so (many) shots, and we just didn’t score one more goal.”But just as Tampa Bay embraced the challenge of battling its way back into the series after losing Games 1 and 2, the Capitals are excited about the opportunity ahead, beginning Saturday night.Not only is Washington is 7-1 on the road this postseason, but the Caps went on eliminate Columbus in the first round and Pittsburgh in the conference semifinal in six games after those series were each tied at 2.”I think we’ve played three out of the four games pretty well,” Trotz said. ”I’m not disappointed at all.”The Lightning are confident, too.”Clearly home-ice advantage has been a disadvantage in this series,” Cooper said. ”Now Youth Darnell Nurse Jersey , in saying that, I’d rather have Game 5 at home. I believe we’ll be a different team here than we showed up in Game 1 and 2.”— DENVER (AP) — Collin Delia’s first start against Colorado was forgettable. He made his second one against the Avalanche memorable.Delia made 35 saves in his first NHL start of the season and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Avalanche 2-1 on Friday night for their third straight victory.Recalled Monday from Rockford of the AHL after Corey Crawford sustained a concussion, the 24-year-old Delia made his third career start. In his previous start, he surrendered five goals late last season in a loss to the Avalanche.“Probably a little bit of vengeance,” Delia said. “I didn’t have the best outing last time so I did everything in my power to prepare to be ready for this game.”Alex DeBrincat and Artem Anisimov scored for Chicago. The Blackhawks swept their two-night, two-game road trip.“We didn’t seem to have as much juice in the legs,” Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said. “It was a battle all night, it felt like we were playing uphill but credit to our guys they found a way to survive and we got some timely saves. We got great goaltending tonight.”J.T. Compher scored for Colorado, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 26 shots.Colorado’s Colin Wilson left the game early when he fell over Andreas Martinsen and landed on his left shoulder. Wilson was helped off and didn’t return because of an upper-body injury.Later in the first period, Blackhawks defenseman Samuel Girard crashed into the end boards after getting tangled with Jonathan Toews. He skated off the ice and went to the locker room.Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Girard should be fine, but Wilson will miss some time.“I would say he is week-to-week, not day-to-day,” Bednar said.Grubauer had 35 saves against Montreal on Wednesday night and made some key saves in the second period to keep it tied. He stopped Anisimov on a great chance early in the period Kailer Yamamoto Jersey , then stopped a point-blank shot by Dylan Sikura after the puck bounced off the boards right to the center.The goalie gave up a rebound early in the third period and Chicago capitalized. Grubauer made the initial stop on Patrick Kane’s shot but it trickled through and Anisimov knocked it in at 1:19.“It was one that I would have love to have back,” Grubauer said. “One horrible goal cost us the game.”Delia made sure the lead stood with 11 saves in the third period and got a little help from the posts. Colorado hit three in the game, including one by Compher in the third period.“Obviously, you want to get a little puck luck, but you make your own luck,” Delia said. “You battle, you work hard and you think you deserve those bounces. On the road you’re not going to ask why the puck stayed out of net, we’re just happy with the two points.”Chicago struck first when Dominik Kahun came out of the box after serving a minor for too many men and got the puck from Connor Murphy in the neutral zone. He slid a pass across to DeBrincat, whose shot went off Grubauer’s blocker and in at 8:07 of the first. It was his 16th of the season.The Avalanche tied it when Alexander Kerfoot sent a backhand pass from the end boards to Compher crashing the net, and he flicked it past Delia at 2:58 of the second.Colorado came into the game third in the league in power-play percentage but went 0 for 5.“The penalty kill made the difference for us,” Toews said.NOTES: Colorado D Nikita Zadorov was out with a lower-body injury and will miss Saturday night’s game at Arizona as well. The Avalanche recalled Anton Lindholm from the Colorado Eagles of the AHL.UP NEXT:Blackhawks: Chicago: Host Florida on Sunday.Avalanche: At Arizona on Saturday night.