WASHINGTON -- The Washington Capitals have one of the best power-play units in the NHL.

Friday night it was near perfect.

The Capitals scored three goals off four Tampa Bay penalties and rallied from a 3-0 second-period deficit to defeat the Lightning 5-3.

Left winger Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of power-play goals and added two assists, and Marcus Johansson's power-play tally put Washington ahead with 5:44 left.

"The power play was fantastic tonight," Capitals head coach Barry Trotz said of the NHL's second-ranked unit. "They got us a win and the urgency in the third period was evident to me."

Washington right winger T.J. Oshie, who ended the night with an empty-netter, also had an unassisted goal, which pulled Washington to within 3-2 early in the third before Ovechkin tied it with 9:58 left. Oshie added two assists.

"I think he made plays all over the ice," Johansson said of Oshie. "He had some beautiful assists, a nice goal and it's fun to watch him play. He makes things out of nothing."

The Capitals (23-6-2) have won four straight and 11 of 13. They are 20-2-2 in last 24 home games against Lightning.

Washington goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who replaced starter Braden Holtby after Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos made it 3-0 at 9:04 of the second period, stopped all seven shots he faced.

Grubauer's biggest save came when he stopped center Vladislav Namestnikov from point-blank range just prior to Oshie's first goal.

"We make that 4-1 it's probably game over, and they come down and score on that, and now it's a one-goal game with a lot of time left," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said.

Stamkos ended a 10-game goal drought for the Lightning (16-14-3), who also got goals from center Alex Killorn and defenseman Andrej Sustr.

"You go into the third period (and) you have a two-goal lead you should at least get points out of the game," Cooper said. "We don't get any, so this is a tough one to swallow."

Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (1-6-1 lifetime against the Capitals) stopped 18 shots.

Minutes after Oshie's goal, Ovechkin got the puck at the top of the zone, deked a defender and wristed a shot by Bishop to tie it.

Johansson's go-ahead power-play goal came when he finished off a pretty passing sequence that started with Ovechkin and Oshie.

Tampa Bay put only four shots on goal during the first period, but its first one went in thanks to a great individual effort by Killorn at 8:18 of the period as he got around a Washington defender and Holtby before tucking the puck in the net for his fifth of the season.

The Lightning made it 2-0 at 6:54 of the second when Sustr beat Holtby with a wrist shot on a rush for his first goal of the season.

Less than three minutes later, Stamkos fired past Holtby to make it 3-0, ending the Washington goalie's night after making just nine saves.

"I was tired of our team leaving him out to dry," Trotz said. "Even though we've been winning we've been giving a lot of odd-man rushes and just some detail stuff so I said ‘I'm done with that.' Grubby went in there and the guys responded."

The Capitals scored 6:11 left in the second period on a power play. Oshie beat Bishop to the rebound of an Ovechkin shot, and passed blindly behind him back to Ovechkin, who fired into the vacated net.

"Their power play obviously picked us apart pretty good tonight," Stamkos said. "We give them some life on the power play (and) they get a couple more in the third, which is obviously tough, and it's just the same story in this building -- the power play finds a way to beat us."

NOTES: Washington and Tampa Bay met for the third time in three weeks. The Capitals won the first two games. ... Capitals RW Tom Wilson was in the lineup. His match penalty for a hit on Ottawa F Curtis Lazar on Wednesday night was rescinded Friday by the NHL. ... Tampa Bay remains without C Tyler Johnson (upper-body injury), LW Jonathan Drouin (lower body), LW Ondrej Palat (lower body), C Cedric Paquette (upper body) and RW Erik Condra (lower body). D Matthew Carle was scratched. ... The Lightning open a six-game homestand Sunday against Ottawa. ... RW Stanislav Galiev and D Connor Carrick were scratched for the Capitals. ... Washington placed RW Chris Brown on waivers. If he clears waivers, he'll be assigned to Hershey of the AHL.