Washington Capitals finally win their first preseason game

It took five tries but in the fifth of six preseason games, the Washington Capitals finally won. They defeated the Boston Bruins on the road 4-3 in overtime thanks to a game winning goal from Anthony Mantha.

The Bruins took a 1-0 lead from Charlie Coyle at 7:28 in the first period. 1-0 was the score after one with the Bruins leading in shots 15-11.

The Caps would tie it at 6:09 of the second. Alex Ovechkin fed the puck up the middle to Garnet Hathaway. Hathaway missed his shot but Evgeny Kuznetsov was there to put in the rebound. The Caps took the lead at 7:05 on a nifty backhanded breakaway goal from Tom Wilson, a guy who the Bruins own David Pastrnak calls the best goal scorer in the league. Kuznetsov and Nick Jensen had the helpers.

The Bruins tied the game on a goal from Taylor Hall at 13:17. 2-2 was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 12-9.

The Caps took the lead in the third period when John Carlson fed Ovechkin cross ice. Ovechkin shot the puck toward the net and T.J. Oshie was there to backhand it in at 13:29. Pastrnak tied it at 16:31. The Bruins led in shots 12-5 in the third period and the game would head to overtime.

1:41 into overtime, Mantha would win the game. Assisted by Oshie and Justin Schultz, Mantha glided down the ice confidently with the game on his stick, faked a pass, and ripped in a shot to give the Caps their first win of the preseason. Although it doesn’t count, wins like this are good confidence boosters as games that actually count are less than a week away.

The Caps had two total shots in overtime while the Bruins had none. The Bruins outshot the Caps in total 36-30. The Caps only won 39 percent of their face offs while going one for seven on the power play. However, the penalty kill played a big part of the game by stopping all three Bruins power play opportunities including one late in the third period. Vitek Vanecek made 33 saves.

Here were head coach Peter Laviolette’s thoughts on the game:

"“I thought we were a little bit slow in the first, and sometimes that happens when you’re traveling in. I thought we shook it off pretty good; the second was a really good period for us. We were able to get it behind them, get in on the forecheck and generate some offense, so that was good. The third period was good; it was a little sleepy the first 10 minutes, but I liked the way we clicked on the power play in the end, and in overtime. It was a good job of getting the win on the road.”"

The Caps close out the preseason Friday night at home against the Philadelphia Flyers. There are still plenty of roster decisions to be made.