Washington Capitals come up short to Bruins
The Washington Capitals got off to a poor start against the Boston Bruins with their worst first period of the season and couldn’t recover in time. They at least made things interesting in the third period but the Bruins would come out on top 4-2. The Caps are now in second place in the MassMutual East Division.
Jeremy Lauzon struck first for the Bruins 33 seconds into the contest. The Bruins would make it 2-0 with a goal from Anton Blidh. The Bruins led in shots after the opening 20 minutes 17-9.
The Caps would get a power play chance in the second but instead of scoring the worst happened. Brad Marchand scored a shorthanded goal at 4:09 to make it 3-0.
The Caps would get another power play chance thanks to a four minute power play. It was after Anton Blidh was called for roughing and slashing Lars Eller. On the attack T.J. Oshie won the face off, John Carlson got the puck to Alex Ovechkin and he fired it in from right outside his office to get the Caps on the board at 10:08.
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It was Ovechkin’s 20th goal of the season. It also put him at number two all time in power play goals. It was his 266th PPG of his career, passing Brett Hull. He needs nine more for the all time record.
With that being a double minor the Caps were still on the power play. Nicklas Backstrom fed it to Carlson and Oshie was positioned in Ovi’s office. He got the pass and ripped it in for his 12th goal of the season at 10:27.
3-2 was the score after two periods. The Caps led in shots 14-7 in the middle stanza.
The Caps would try to tie the game but they were unable to. Daniel Carr, who slotted in the lineup in favor of Daniel Sprong (which we still do not get), got called for hooking which put the Caps on the penalty kill late in the game. Craig Smith made them pay with a power play goal at 16:55. 4-2 was the final.
The Caps, after heating up in the month of March, have dropped four of their last six games. Nicklas Backstrom told the media via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“Obviously that’s not where we want to be. We just have to learn from games like this. . . . This last little stretch here we’re going to play all of the top teams, so we have to find a way to turn this around.”"
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The Caps will be back in action tonight in a road game against the Buffalo Sabres. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington.