For the third time in three tries this season, Braden Holtby
shut out the Bruins, last night by a 3-0 margin at Verizon Center, putting the
Bruins in greater danger of missing the post season as they cling to a
tie-breaker advantage over the Ottawa Senators for the final playoff spot in
the Eastern Conference.
The Caps staked Holtby to an early lead, just 4:49 into the
game, when Nicklas Backstrom, skating down the left wing wall, threaded a
difficult pass through the high slot and onto the tape of John Carlson’s stick
at the top of the right wing circle.
Carlson glided in and fired a snap shot that beat goalie Tuukka Rask over
his glove, and it was 1-0.
Less than three minutes later, it was 2-0. Troy Brouwer did some fine work on the right
wing wall to free the puck back to Backstrom, who wasted no time sending the
puck back to Matt Niskanen at the right point.
Niskanen fired a shot from long range that was redirected past Rask by
the stick of teammate Zach Trotman at 7:06.
That would do it for the scoring until late in the second
period when Marcus Johansson hit the 20-goal mark for the season. It took a pair of clever passes to set up the
score, the first coming from Brouwer who, hounded by Bruin Brett Connolly, spun
from the wall at the Caps’ blue line and backhanded a short pass to Evgeny
Kuznetsov exiting the zone. Kuznetsov
skated down the right wing into the Bruins’ zone and was on a path to take him
around the back of the Boston net.
However, as he got to the goal line he spied Johansson trailing, and
instead of continuing with the puck around the Boston net, he left it for
Johansson as Rask was sliding across in anticipation of Kuznetsov coming out
the other side. Johansson had an open
half of the net at which to shoot, and he buried the shot to make it 3-0 with
2:13 left in the second period.
With a three-goal lead heading into the third period, it was
left to Holtby to slam the door shut on any Bruin hopes. He faced only five shots, stopped them all,
and had his third shutout of the Bruins this season and his ninth overall as
the Caps won, 3-0.
Other stuff…
-- Braden Holtby’s shutout streak against the Bruins
extended to 186:43 with this shutout, dating back to the third period of a 4-2
loss to Boston last March 29th.
The shutout tied him with Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury for the league
lead (9).
-- Niskanen’s goal broke what was for him a bit of an ugly
streak. He had not scored a goal in 37 consecutive
regular season games in April, dating back to April 3, 2008, when he scored a
goal for the Dallas Stars in a 4-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.
-- Troy Brouwer’s two assists gave him 20, the first time in
his career he hit the 20-assist mark. It
was also his third two-assist game of the season.
-- Nicklas Backstrom might be in a long goal-scoring
drought, but he continues to accumulate the assists. He had two more last night, giving him 59 for
the season, tied for the league lead with Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek.
-- Marcus Johansson hit the 20-goal mark for the first time
in his career with his second period score.
With two points on the night, he set a career high in points (47) in his
ninth multi-point game of the season.
-- Michael Latta was the only Capital to win his night in
the circle on a night where the Caps were abused on faceoffs (24-for-63 in all,
38.1 percent). Latta was 7-for-12.
-- Although they are the “Big Bad Bruins,” it was the Caps
credited with the large majority of hits, finishing with a 35-24 margin. Latta led the team with six.
-- Stanislav Galiev dressed for his first NHL game,
finishing with one shot on goal, two shot attempts, a hit, and a takeaway in
9:56 of ice time.
-- It was a big night for Holtby in other ways. He became the first goalie to shutout the
same opponent in three consecutive games in a regular season since the Coyotes’
Mike Smith did it to the San Jose Sharks in 2010-2011, and he tied the Capitals
franchise record for wins in a season with 41 (Olaf Kolzig in 1999-2000). He is tied for second (with Nashville’s Pekka
Rinne) in wins, behind only Montreal’s Carey Price (42). And, until Holtby’s three shutouts of the
Bruins this season, the Caps had recorded a total of five shutouts against
Boston in 145 games of this series before this season.
-- The Caps swept the season series against Boston for the
first time since the 1982-1983 season.
In the end…
Nice win, good win, the kind of win you really like to see
at this time of year. Cold, brutally
efficient, throwing the opponent’s style of game right back in their face. The Caps are now 9-2-1 in their last dozen
games. They did it with solid efforts up
and down the roster and an excellent performance in goal. Just they formula you are looking for at this
time of year.
No comments:
Post a Comment