Capitals come up clutch, defeat Bruins in shootout
The Washington Capitals bounced back in a big way.
After a 5-2 defeat on home ice, the Washington Capitals hit the road to take on the Boston Bruins. It looked like they were on their way to another defeat but they showed heart and resiliency in a tough road environment still filled with plenty of red from the Caps fans who made the trip.
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead at 11:32 in the first with Charlie Coyle burying a perfect setup in front of the net from Danton Heinen. Charlie McAvoy had the secondary assist.
Despite the early hiccup, the Capitals dominated much of the first period and were rewarded less than three minutes later with Travis Boyd redirecting a shot from John Carlson.
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Fresh after dressing 11 forwards on Friday night the team recalled Boyd from Hershey. With the tricky situation from the salary cap, the team was able to bring him up along with Vitek Vanecek.
1-1 was the score after the first period. The Capitals dominated in possession with an 18-9 edge in shots on goal.
The Bruins took the lead in the second period at 3:30 with a goal from David Pastrnak. McAvoy and David Krejci had the helpers.
The Caps kept the pressure up on Jaroslav Halak but just like the uh, yeah let’s not go there, he was a brick wall stopping shot after shot. The Caps had the edge in shots in the second period 12-6 and the third 11-6. They would finally break through with under a minute left.
With 58.6 seconds to go Nicklas Backstrom shot the puck and it deflected off of Zdeno Chara and went to Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov found T.J. Oshie, who came up huge with a goal to tie the game. It was Oshie’s 10th goal of the season. It came with 58.6 seconds left.
Nobody scored in 3-on-3 overtime play. The Caps outshot the Bruins 3-2 in overtime and overall 44-23 after allowing 40 shots the night before.
Oshie was denied by Halak’s glove to begin the shootout. Coyle scored to put the Bruins up early. Kuznetsov missed his attempt while Holtby said no to Pastrnak.
Nicklas Backstrom finally got the Caps on the board in the shootout round while Holtby made a save on Brad Marchand on the other end. Ovechkin and David Krejci each were stopped by great saves by both goaltenders.
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Jakub Vrana put the Caps in front with a deke that faked out Halak, shooting the puck right side over his left leg. Holtby stopped Chris Wagner to seal the win.