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Tuesday night’s main objective for the Capitals was to nip their three-game winless streak in the bud, and that goal was accomplished with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. The Caps also got captain Alex Ovechkin a goal for the second straight game; he netted career goal No. 891 on a Washington power play in the first period. With eight games remaining on Washington’s schedule, Ovechkin is three goals shy of matching Wayne Gretzky (894) for the top spot on the NHL’s all-time goals ledger.
Ryan Leonard made his NHL debut for the Caps on Tuesday night as well, acquitting himself nicely in his first taste of the game at the highest level.
All in all, it was a positive – though south of perfect – night for Washington, which now must saddle up for another tilt on Wednesday night in Raleigh against the Hurricanes.
“I thought our start was excellent,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I loved our first period and then the second, not good at all. So [we] took a step back in the second, but dug in in the third and found the win.”
Washington drew first blood while Boston was on the game’s first power play in the back half of the first frame. Caps center Nic Dowd won the defensive zone draw to John Carlson, who fired the puck around the glass, and Boston’s David Pastrnak lost his footing at the left point trying to keep the puck in the zone.
Brandon Duhaime picked up the loose puck and took off on a 2-on-1 with Dowd, sending the latter into Boston ice with the disc, and with the option of a return feed. Dowd wisely called his own number and buried it at 13:32 of the first, a mere 11 seconds after the start of the penalty. The shorthanded goal – his second of the season – enabled Dowd to match his career high in goals (13) and points (25).
Minutes later, the Caps went on an abbreviated man advantage of 89 seconds in duration, and that was more than enough time to set up Ovechkin’s 891st career goal. From the high slot, Carlson fed Dylan Strome down low on the left side, and Strome quickly bumped it to Ovechkin on the right side. From there, the captain was able to finish the tic-tac-toe passing play with an empty-net tap in at the back door, doubling the Washington lead to 2-0 at 15:43.
Ovechkin’s goal was the 241st first-period goal of his NHL career, passing Phil Esposito (240) and moving into a tie with Gretzky (241) for the most opening frame lamplighters in League history.
The Caps delivered a strong first period performance, but the same could not be said of the game’s middle 20 minutes. Boston dominated, and the beleaguered Bruins – who entered the game on an extended 0-7-1 slide – notched a pair of goals to pull even with the visitors.
First, the B’s got a favorable bounce that resulted in the puck landing on Vinni Lettieri’s stick in the slot. Lettieri beat Charlie Lindgren at 6:05 to halve the deficit.
Shortly after the midpoint of the middle period, Lindgren made a sharp glove save on a Pastrnak drive from the left circle to preserve the Caps’ lead. But in the waning seconds of a Boston power play late in the frame, Pastrnak evened the score at 2-2 when he deflected a Morgan Geekie shot from the left dot, and it found twine at 17:12.
Seeing his first NHL game action since Dec. 23 here in Boston, Dylan McIlrath stepped into the Washington lineup to fill in for the absent Matt Roy (personal), and he played a strong game, engaging in a lengthy bout with Boston’s Jeffrey Viel in between the two Boston goals in the second.
“I thought he was fantastic as well,” says Carbery of the big blueliner. “I thought he managed his game, good on puck touches, obviously the scrap. “He's trying to change momentum in that hockey game for us, because he could probably feel that we were slipping there in the second period.
“To sit that that long and not play, and then to be able to step in on the road, [where I] can't control the matchups and play the way he did, thought he was fantastic.”
McIlrath finished the night with 10:33 in ice time, but he also served seven minutes worth of time in the sin bin.
The Caps displayed significantly more jump in the third period, and it was just enough to get the job done.
Just after the midpoint of the third, the Caps regained the lead with a strong offensive zone shift. Leonard twice retrieved pucks and pushed them out to the point; the second time he did so, Aliaksei Protas was stationed at the left point, and he bumped it to Martin Fehervary at center point. Fehervary wound up and fired just wide, but Strome was right at the left post to tuck it in off the back wall for a 3-2 lead at 10:37.
“Just trying to battle in front,” says Leonard of the Strome goal. “Keep getting the puck from low to high, and then a nice play to the middle, and Stromer tapped it in.”
Just over four minutes later, Tom Wilson restored the Caps’ two-goal cushion with a fortuitous bounce; he was trying to feed Trevor van Riemsdyk on a 2-on-1 rush when the puck bounced off B’s blueliner Mason Lohrei and bounded into the cage behind Jeremy Swayman at 14:46.
Boston responded less than half a minute later; response goals against have been an issue for Washington of late. Pastrnak struck for his second of the night at 15:13, scoring on a well-placed shot with a screen in front.
Ovechkin had a shot at the empty Boston net late in the contest, but he missed wide. He won’t need to wait long for his next opportunity.
“What is it, four now?” asks Carbery. “It’s getting close. It’s getting close. You can feel it, yeah, you can definitely feel it. If that empty netter – yeah, it’s getting close.”
Again, the main thing for the Caps was to avoid extending their slide with Wednesday’s game against a rested Carolina squad on the horizon.
“It was just a big win in general,” says Lindgren, who made 21 saves to notch his 17th win of the season. “Obviously, the last three games haven't gone our way, and then just to get back in the win column and just get that taste of winning again; even though it's three games, it still sucked, and it's about time we turn it around.
“Big goal for [Ovechkin], and I thought Leno played well, too. But overall, we'll take two points.”
