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The Tampa Bay Lightning are one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final, beating the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday.Since losing the first two games of the series, the Lightning have won three games in a row, and they now hold a 3-2 series lead.

After taking a 3-1 lead Saturday, the Lightning held on against a late surge from Washington. The Caps could not net the equalizer on the heels of Alex Ovechkin scoring with less than two minutes left in the game to make it 3-2.

Tampa set the tone from the start with a goal on its first shift of the game. Cedric Paquette scored 19 seconds in off a one-handed pass from Ryan Callahan, as seen in the following video courtesy of NHL on NBC:After the road team won each of the first four games of this series, the Lightning defeated the Washington Capitals 3-2 at Amalie Arena on Saturday, pushing Washington to the brink of elimination and taking a 3-2 lead.

After playing 12 subpar periods at 5-on-5, the Lightning scored three goals in that phase of the game, matching the most they have in any game of this series. And where the Lightning were victims of allowing goals late in periods at the start of this series, they turned the tables on the Capitals, scoring a goal in the opening minute of the first and second periods to blitz the Capitals and build out a cushion.

It began when Cedric Paquette scored 19 seconds into regulation, taking advantage of a broken play and a deflected pass from Ryan Callahan that hit off the skate of Dmitry Orlov and right into Paquette's path.

Midway through the period, Ondrej Palat doubled that lead when he capitalized on another Capitals defensive miscue, before firing a wrist shot past Braden Holtby and under the crossbar. Tampa Bay took a 2-0 lead entering the second period.

Ryan Callahan added to Tampa Bay's advantage seconds into the second period. It took only 33 seconds for Callahan to push Tampa Bay's advantage to 3-0, when he deflected home a puck out of midair after crashing the net for a rebound.

Evgeny Kuznetsov would break Andrei Vasilevskiy's shutout about four minutes later, when he deflected a Matt Niskanen shot to cut Washington's deficit to 3-1. From there, it was nearly a perfect night for Vasilevskiy, save for an Alex Ovechkin goal with the Capitals playing 6-on-5 in the closing minutes.

After falling behind 2-0 in this series, the Lightning have gotten superb goaltending from Vasilevskiy who has stopped 100 of the 106 shots he's seen.

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The Ovechkin goal made it interesting, but the Lightning would hold on in the closing 96 seconds, including one final, game-sealing save from Vasilevskiy on John Carlson.TAMPA, Fla. -- The Washington Capitals know they have a lot of work to do.

The Tampa Bay Lightning know their work is far from done.

Both teams expect to be at their best on Monday for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals at Capital One Arena with Tampa Bay holding a 3-2 series advantage and the chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Final to face the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Capitals, a franchise haunted by the failures of postseasons past, are staring down another one heading into their first elimination game of this year's playoffs.

After finally pushing past the Pittsburgh Penguins and advancing past the second round for the first time in 20 years -- and the first time in the Alex Ovechkin era -- Washington kept rolling right on in to the conference finals, winning the first two games on the road.

But since grabbing that 2-0 series lead, the Capitals have dropped the past three games and are once again facing questions about seeing a big series lead dissipate into disappointment.

In the conference era, which dates back to 1974-75, only two teams in 41 occasions have won the first two games of a conference final or league semifinal on the road and failed to win the series: the Montreal Canadiens in 1984 and Boston Bruins in 1991.

"It's OK," Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said. "We're going to play better in Game 6 and we have [to] bounce back and come here and play a Game 7 and that's it."

The Capitals are leaning on some of the adversity they have faced this season, including being down 0-2 themselves in the opening round after dropping consecutive home games to open the series against Columbus.

"We kind of had our backs against the wall a couple times this year in these playoffs. We can draw from those experiences," defenseman John Carlson said. "Just got to go out there and play hockey. That's what we do. Just all about upstairs and what you can control. I think if you stay in the moment like we have, we got a pretty good chance of winning.

"I think these guys are a very capable group that is very capable of winning the next game. That's all we're worried about."

History is not on Washington's side, however.

When a series is tied 2-2 in a best-of-seven format, the team which won Game 5 has an all-time series record of 215-55, a 79.6 winning percentage.

But the Lightning are well aware that a 3-2 series lead means the next victory is going to be the hardest to earn.

Twice in the previous three years Tampa Bay has been in this same position in the conference finals. In 2015, they held a 3-2 lead against the New York Rangers heading back home but lost Game 6 before winning in seven games. In 2016, the Lightning were up 3-2 on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference finals and lost Game 6 at home and eventually the series in seven games.

Now, they are back in the same situation in 2018, but instead are heading on the road with the chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in franchise history.

"We have a lot of unfinished business," Lightning forward Ryan Callahan said. "This isn't even close to being over. This last game's definitely the hardest, against a very, very good Washington team and to go in their building and try to close them out it's going to be tough."

Tampa Bay has been a strong road team in these playoffs, posting a 5-1 record away from home with four consecutive road victories. The Lightning have also never lost a playoff game in Washington in three all-time postseason meetings, which also includes 2003 and 2011, with a 7-0 record.

Yet, all that matters is what Tampa Bay can put forth on Monday.

"We're going to have to match their urgency," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "The closeout games, potential closeout games, they just seem to bring out the best in everybody. For us, we've had some success when we've gotten the lead. When you do that, you put a little pressure on the other team. Something we'll try and focus on [Monday] night."