Just like last night, the Caps were off and running early. Brad Marchand tried to find Zdeno Chara with a cross-ice pass inside the Caps’ blue line, but the pass was picked off by Nicklas Backstrom lying in the weeds. Backstrom had his head up ice and found T.J. Oshie with a delightful saucer pass that split Colin Miller and Brad Marchand defending. The pass sprung Oshie loose on a breakaway, and after he took a peek behind him to see who might be lurking, drilled a snap shot through the pads of goalie Tuukka Rask at the 3:06 mark to make it 1-0.
Ten minutes later the Caps doubled their lead when the Caps
worked the puck through the Bruins defense to Matt Niskanen at the left point. Niskanen fired a shot that was kicked out by
Rask but right into the slot where Backstrom was filling in. Backstrom wasted no time ripping a shot past
the lunge of Rask to make it 2-0, 13:34 into the period.
Boston then took advantage of two Capitals penalties, one
just before and one just after the first intermission to tie the game, Marchand
getting the goals in both instances. The
first came with just 1:14 left in the first period on a curl and snipe that
sailed past the blocker of goalie Braden Holtby. The second came in the third minute of the
second period. Marchand lie in wait in
the low slot as the Bruins worked the puck around from Patrice Bergeron to
David Pastrnak to Ryan Spooner, who fed Marchand for the redirect in front of
Holtby at the 2:49 mark to tie the game at two apiece.
Alex Ovechkin brought the Caps out of their doldrums late in
the second period. With Brandon Carlo in
the penalty box for holding, the Caps worked the puck around the right side
until it made its way to NIskanen at the top of the zone. Niskanen’s first attempt to set up Ovechkin
for a one-time got hung up in Ovechkin’s skates, and Ovechkin sent the puck
back from whence it came. Niskanen tried
again, and his pass was only marginally better.
Ovechkin dug it out, angled toward the middle for a better shooting
angle, and wristed the puck through the legs of Adam McQuaid and past Rask to
make it 3-2 with 14.2 seconds left in the second period.
Brett Connolly extended the lead early in the third
period. Evgeny Kuznetsov was the band
leader on the play, carrying the puck down the right side into the Boston
end. From the edge of the right wing
circle, he left it off for Dmitry Orlov cutting in from the top of the left
wing circle. Orlov funneled the puck to
Connolly cutting across the grain, and Connolly carried it across the slot
where he backhanded it past the diving glove of Rask to make it 4-2, 3:29 into
the period.
Evgeny Kuznetsov made it 5-2 late in the third when he took
a sweet feed from Tom Wilson and snapped a shot from the edge of the left wing
circle past the right pad of Rask.
David Krejci got the Bruins back to within two goals with a
put back of a rebound at the top of the crease, but it would be as close as the
Caps would get in the 5-3 final.
Other stuff…
-- Nicklas Backstrom had a 1-2-3 night. It was his 13th multi-point game
of the season, breaking a tie with Alex Ovechkin for most on the club this
season, and his 189th career multi-point game. It was his fourth three-point game of the
season, breaking a tie for the team lead with T.J. Oshie.
-- Alex Ovechkin’ power play goal was the 550th in
his career, breaking a tie with Ron Francis for 27th all-time in the
NHL. He is third among active players, trailing only Jaromir Jagr (758) and
Jarome Iginla (617). It was also his 205th
career power play goal, breaking his tie with Wayne Gretzky for 15th
place and lifting him into a tie with Joe Sakic for 14th place on
the NHL all-time list. Only Jagr is
ahead of him among active players (214).
-- Matt Niskanen had a pair of assists, his fourth
multi-point game in his last nine contests, over which he is 2-8-10.
-- Brett Connolly recorded his fifth goal in his last 12
games, and in the nine games in which he has a goal this season, the Caps are
8-0-1.
-- The Caps allowed two power play goals, making it six
straight games in which the Caps allowed at least one (15-for-22/68.2 percent
penalty kill) and nine of their last 12 games (29-for-40/72.5 percent penalty
kill).
-- The Caps scored a power play goal of their own, giving
them power play strikes in seven of their last nine games (9-for-26/34.6
percent power play) and nine of their last 12 contests (12-for-32/37.5 percent
power play).
-- The win was Washington’s eighth in a row and extended
their points streak on home ice to ten games (9-0-1); they are 12-1-1 in their
last 14 games at Verizon Center.
-- The fourth line of Tom Wilson, Chandler Stephenson, and
Daniel Winnik had a combined two shot attempts (both by Winnik, both missed
shots).
-- An odd number buried under a lot of other numbers… The
Caps took 56 faceoffs as a team, but Jay Beagle, one of the best in the league,
took only three (1-for-3). He was
getting second line duty as a winger with Justin Williams out of the lineup.
-- This was the 13th game this season in which
Braden Holtby allowed three or more goals.
He is now 5-6-0 in those games (two no-decisions).
In the end…
It was not the prettiest of wins, especially the
sleep-walking through the end of the first period and the beginning of the
second, and the leaky defense late. And
that penalty kill really needs shoring up.
But five goals against a team as good as the Bruins have been lately is
no small feat, even if Tuukka Rask can’t beat this team if he allows a goal (he
has a 1-9-5 record against the Caps, and his only career win over the Caps came
via shutout). It is two points in the
bank, putting them four clear of Columbus for the lead in the Metropolitan
Division, and it makes for a good start to the month. That’s not all bad.
