The Caps did catch a break in that the Bruins were playing
the second half of a road back-to-back set, their first back-to-back of the
season, having played in Toronto on Thursday night. The Caps got another break when Bruins head
coach Claude Julien decided not to start goalie Tuukka Rask on consecutive
nights, giving the nod to rookie Anton Khudobin in his first start of the young
season.
Khudobin might not have had NHL experience, but it was not
as if he was not experienced. The
26-year old entered this season with more than 170 games of AHL regular season
and playoff experience, almost 70 games in the ECHL, and more than 20 games
with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Russia.
And even his sparse NHL experience was successful. He brought a career record into this game of
5-1-0, 1.32, .961, and one shutout earned over small parts of three seasons
with the Minnesota Wild and the Bruins.
Khudobin and the Bruins, not to mention the Caps, continued
just where they left off in last spring’s opening round playoff series. Neither team was able to find the back of the
net, and the game was played with a zone-to-zone ferocity that belied the fact
that this game was being played in November.
The first 20 minutes passed without a good scoring chance for either
side. And while Khudobin was able to
keep the net clean for the Bruins, Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth did the same for
the Caps. The Caps led in shots in the
first period, 5-4.
The start of the second period was much like the first,
neither team able to gain much of a foothold in the other’s defensive
zone. That changed when Nicklas
Backstrom took a slashing penalty just before the six-minute mark of the
period. The Caps almost killed the
penalty off, but with just 14 seconds left in the penalty kill an attempted
clear by John Carlson hit a post between two of the glass partitions at the
side wall and ricocheted to Tyler Seguin in the right wing circle. Seguin backhanded a pass to Patrice Bergeron
at the edge of the left wing circle, and Bergeron wristed the puck past
Neuvirth to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 7:44.
The lead lasted only nine seconds. After Backstrom won the ensuing
faceoff, Carlson sent the puck off the boards and into the Boston end. Dennis Seidenberg was retreating on the play
and tried to sweep the puck onto his stick.
He missed, and his momentum took him away from the puck. Backstrom pounced on the unforced error and
snapped the puck through Khudobin’s five hole to knot the game at a goal
apiece.
The Caps would get their own power play opportunity when
Milan Lucic was sent off for charging, but the Caps could not solve Khudobin
with the man advantage. Except for some
mutual disrespect between Matt Hendricks and Brad Marchand that resulted in
coincidental roughing minors late in the period, there was no further
excitement before the teams went to their locker rooms at the second
intermission tied at a goal apiece.
Rich Peverley broke the tie early in the third period when
he was able to get multiple whacks at a loose puck in front of Neuvirth. Given the way the game was progressing, that
goal might have been enough. But with
just under nine minutes left in the third period, Joey Crabb returned the favor
by getting several pokes at a loose puck in Khudobin’s crease. His last poke managed to slide the puck under
the goalie for his first goal of the season just as he was getting sent to the
ice by Bruin defenseman Andrew Ference.
That was how the 60-minute portion of the game ended, the
teams tied at 2-2. Both goalies kept
their nets clear of pucks in the five-minute overtime, and the contest went to
the trick shot competition. Round one
featured Tyler Seguin for the Bruins and Mike Ribeiro for the Caps, neither
being able to score on Neuvirth or Khudobin.
The second round of Patrice Bergeron and Nicklas Backstrom had the same
result.
David Krejci had a chance to put the Bruins up in the final
round, but Neuvirth did not bite on an attempt by Kreici to open up the five
hole with a deke. Neuvirth turned away
the shot, giving the Caps a chance to clinch with Matt Hendricks skating to
center ice. Hendricks started in, and as
he reached the top of the circles opened up his stick blade to show a forehand
shot. Khudobin bit on the fake, dropping
to the ice to defend the shot that didn’t come.
He was prone at the top of his crease – paralyzed, as it were – as Hendricks
curled to his left and wristed the puck into the open net, giving the Caps a
3-2 win.
Notes: Mike Green
missed the contest with a “lower body injury;” he is still listed as day-to-day…
Alex Ovechkin was held without a shot on goal for the first time this season…
the goal in the Gimmick round was Hendricks’ 10th career goal; he is
10-for-14 for his career and 9-for-12 in two-plus seasons with the Caps.
Capitals 3 – Bruins 2 (OT/SO)
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