Washington Capitals (12-5-4 28pts) v. Boston Bruins (12-5-2 26pts)
Game Recap:
For the first time since joining the Washington Capitals, Zdeno Chara would play in Boston to take on his former team the Bruins. In the first period the Caps would hold the B’s shotless for over 15 minutes, and would make the best of their initial powerplay despite not scoring on it. The Bruins would get a very close call with a David Pastrnak breakaway, but only for the puck to hit the post, bank off of Vitek Vanecek and off the post once again to keep the game tied at zero. The Caps would think that they would get the first goal of the game when TJ Oshie would knock in Richard Panik’s shot that was going wide, but the Bruins would challenge for offsides, and despite what was shown on NBC Sports Network being inconclusive (which means the goal would’ve standed), the officials declared that the play was offsides. How? Well here’s the League’s explanation.
So it’d still be tied at zero, and then the Caps would get themselves into penalty trouble, and give the Bruins a powerplay to start the second period.
Come the second period the Caps would start off by killing the penalty, and then from there it would be a physical affair between both teams. No penalties. No goals. Just physical back and forth playoff like hockey.
Come the third period David Pastrnak would finally open the scoring 79 seconds into the period to break the scoreless tie for the Bruins, but less than five minutes later Lars Eller would strike to get the Caps on the board and tie the game at one to send this game to overtime. In the extra frame Tuukka Rask would put on a goalie clinic making some really great saves, but come the shootout it would be Jakub Vrana with the lone goal and Vitek Vanecek shutting down all three Boston shooters to take the 2-1 victory.
Lineups:
Washington Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Conor Sheary
Jakub Vrana — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Richard Panik — Lars Eller — T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Brenden Dillon — John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov — Justin Schultz
Zdeno Chara — Nick Jensen
Vitek Vanecek
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched: Daniel Sprong, Jonas Siegenthaler, Trevor van Riemsdyk
Injured: None
Boston Bruins:
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Nick Ritchie — David Krejci — Jake DeBrusk
Trent Frederic — Jack Studnicka — Craig Smith
Anders Bjork — Sean Kuraly — Chris Wagner
Jakub Zboril — Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk — Brandon Carlo
Jarred Tinordi — Connor Clifton
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Scratched: John Moore, Charlie Coyle, Greg McKegg
Injured: Ondrej Kase (upper body), Kevan Miller (lower body), Jeremy Lauzon (fractured hand)
First Period:
BOS Penalty – 2:23 – Charlie McAvoy 2 minutes for Interference
BOS Penalty – 14:19 – David Krejci 2 minutes for Tripping
WAS Penalty – 14:56 – Alex Ovechkin 2 minutes for Interference
WAS Penalty – 19:49 – Richard Panik 2 minutes for Interference
| End of First | WAS – 0 | BOS – 0 |
| Shots | 7 | 2 |
| Faceoff Wins | 14 | 8 |
| Hits | 12 | 13 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 0/2 |
Second Period:
N/A
| End of Second | WAS – 0 | BOS – 0 |
| Shots | 11 | 9 |
| Faceoff Wins | 21 | 12 |
| Hits | 24 | 20 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 0/2 |
Third Period:
BOS Goal – 1:19 – David Pastrnak (10) from Brad Marchand (14)
WAS Goal – 6:14 – Lars Eller (5) from Richard Panik (5) and Nick Jensen (7)
WAS Penalty – 14:30 – Alex Ovechkin 2 minites for Slashing
BOS Penalty – 14:30 – Trent Frederic 2 minutes for Cross Checking
| End of Third | WAS – 1 | BOS – 1 |
| Shots | 22 | 18 |
| Faceoff Wins | 28 | 28 |
| Hits | 28 | 25 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 0/2 |
Overtime:
N/A
Shootout:
- BOS – Jake Debrusk – Save
- WAS – Jakub Vrana – Goal
- BOS – David Pastrnak – Save
- WAS – TJ Oshie – Save
- BOS – Brad Marchand – Save
- WAS – N/A
| End of OT | WAS – 2 | BOS – 1 |
| Shots | 28 | 19 |
| Faceoff Wins | 28 | 30 |
| Hits | 28 | 25 |
| Powerplay | 0/2 | 0/2 |
One thought on “Capitals v. Bruins: A Physical Affair”