Washington Capitals blow a 3-0 lead to Bruins
The Washington Capitals blew a 3-0 lead to the Boston Bruins for the second game in a row. Unlike the last game, which saw the Caps come out on top thanks to Alex Ovechkin, the Caps had no chance once the Bruins had them in their sights. The Bruins scored five unanswered goals including four in the third period.
Carl Hagelin initially put the Caps up 1-0 before the goal was overturned due to offsides. The Caps would get one back thanks to former Bruin Zdeno Chara. Nic Dowd won the faceoff and Garnet Hathaway found Chara downtown and Chara’s rocket went in at 13:26.
11 seconds later it was Daniel Sprong with a wrister that made it 2-0. Sprong showed great puck movement before unleashing a wrist shot in. Jakub Vrana and Nick Jensen had the helpers. 2-0 was the score after 20 with the Caps leading in shots 15-8.
The Caps got a power play opportunity at 7:19 when Jeremy Lauzon was called for hooking Tom Wilson. On the attack, the Caps cashed in with John Carlson‘s fourth goal of the season at 8:35. Carlson fired a shot right up the middle and Vrana was credited with the assist, his second straight assist.
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3-0 Caps and it seemed like they would cruise to a win. But the Bruins knew they could come back from that deficit. They did on Saturday to force overtime. They got on the board at 12:37 with a goal from David Pastrnak, the guy who shared the Rocket Richard Trophy with Ovechkin. 3-1 was the score after two periods with the Caps trailing in shots 9-5.
Pastrnak scored his second of the game at 6:08 in the third. The Bruins tied it at 13:07 thanks to Craig Smith. At 17:23, Brandon Carlo gave them the lead. Everyone’s favorite player they love to hate Brad Marchand put the game away with an empty net goal. It is the Caps first regulation loss of the season after entering the game with a nine game point streak.
Peter Laviolette talked about the third period breakdown via Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic:
"“The third period and the goals they scored were, I don’t like the fact that we weren’t attacking as much. It was like we were good with the lead. The first period I thought we were good. We were driving the period the way that we wanted to. We didn’t do that in the third period, so you’re sitting back. And the three goals and the manner in which they happened it seemed like on each instance we lost coverage, we lost a man for different reasons. We had got clipped on the net, we lost a man to injury and then one was just a blown coverage. … They had opportunities to create, they had good chances and they capitalized on them.”"
The Caps will look to bounce back on Thursday night as they travel to New York to take on the Rangers.