FINAL SCORE: Capitals 4, Bruins 2
BRUINS RECORD: 25-15-4
FROM JOE HAGGERTY:
1. File under something you don’t see every day: Alex Ovechkin checked Zdeno Chara and then threw him over the boards onto the Capitals bench. I have never seen that happen to Chara in the 12 years that he’s been here in Boston. Chara also went nose-to-nose with Tom Wilson in the first period as well, so it’s clear that Boston’s captain is a little ornery in this one. Chara and Wilson continued to tangle in the second period, but there was never any escalation of it as Wilson decided to start targeting hard-hitting Chris Wagner instead for the second half of the night.
2. A big goal for Ryan Donato, who got some time and space after slick passes from JFK and Torey Krug and then unleashed a smoked top corner wrist shot from the top of the circle. It was Donato’s sixth of the season and it was a score that he really needed after struggling to get ice time and chances in recent games. The Bruins are still getting mixed results from that kid third line, but they are popping up with goals and production from time to time. Six shots on net and a couple of takeaways for Donato in nearly 10 minutes of ice time as he’s really having a strong night.
3. The Bruins outshot the Capitals by an 11-7 margin in the second period and again played pretty good hockey. They stood up to the Capitals and, for the most part, enjoyed some really good scoring chances. That’s better than they’ve been a lot of times against Washington in recent years, but it still felt like the Bruins were Charlie Brown and the Capitals were Lucy pulling the football away from him.
4. It isn’t really reflected in the stats on a nightly basis, but Brandon Carlo is really playing some good hockey right now. He was strong tonight as Zdeno Chara’s shutdown partner and looked comfortable just like he did a couple of years ago in that role. Carlo finished a minus-1 in 18:48 of ice time, but had four shot attempts, two hits and a pair of takeaways while playing against Washington’s best for most of the night.
Boston Bruins
5. Not a strong night for Jaroslav Halak, who couldn’t bail out the Bruins on a defensive gaffe by Torey Krug and John Moore in the first period, and then subsequently gave up goals in less than a minute after the Bruins scored each of their two goals to tie the game. The final straw was the game-winner for Nicklas Backstrom that came from deep toward the top of the face-off circle in the third period, and beat Halak to his glove hand. In all, Halak gave up three goals on just 21 shots and contributed to the B’s losing 4-2 despite outshooting Washington by a 41-22 count during the course of the game.
HIGHLIGHTS
CAPS STRIKE FIRST
OVECHKIN DECKS CHARA
DONATO TIES IT UP...
...BUT THAT DOESN'T LAST LONG
KREJCI TIES IT UP AGAIN...
...BUT THAT DOESN'T LAST LONG EITHER
UP NEXT
SATURDAY: at Maple Leafs, 7:00 p.m. (NESN)
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