Bruins push past Caps 4-1

For 40 minutes on Monday evening in Boston, the Capitals and the Bruins played an exciting ice hockey game with little incident, in which both clubs defended extremely well and had difficulty finding space and opportunities on offense. Ten seconds into the third period, Washington had a chance to break the score at 1-1 when B forward Oliver Wahlstrom was assessed a five-minute penalty and a game-misconduct penalty for a corner kick against Washington defenseman Martin Fehervary.

But the Caps weren’t able to get the ball rolling with the man advantage; They couldn’t even test Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman with a shot on net in that five-minute span. Washington was unable to capitalize on its chance, but toward the end of the third, Boston did. The B’s scored two late goals on odd-numbered rushes and added an empty-net goal to give the Caps a 4-1 setback for both teams in the final game before the NHL holiday break.

With 6:19 left, Elias Lindholm capitalized on a shot from Brad Marchand on a 2-on-1 rush and beat Charlie Lindgren to break a 1-1 tie that had lasted nearly 30 minutes of play. Charlie Coyle struck again a few minutes later on a 3-on-1 rush, and Marchand’s late miss made it 4-1, erasing the Caps’ most lopsided loss of the season. They also dropped a 3-0 decision to the Lightning on Oct. 26 in Tampa.

The Caps finished the game with a season-low 11 shots on goal, only eight of which were of the same strength. Washington scored its final shot of the game with 10:11 left in the third period, which was still tied 1-1 at that point.

“I thought we checked well, didn’t give up much and kept them at bay for most of the game,” Caps coach Spencer Carbery said. “We just struggled to do anything substantial with the puck. We just had to deal with every situation where we left her vulnerable – and there were a lot of them. We made some plays to turn them over and get possession of the puck, we just couldn’t do anything tonight.”

Monday’s first period was essentially even 5-on-5 play, with both teams effectively taking up time and space on their own side of the ice and struggling to penetrate the offensive zone. Washington had the first power play of the game, but it had trouble getting started and wasn’t particularly sharp. During this man advantage, the Caps recorded two of their three shots on goal in the first period.

The game took a turn late in the first period when Fehervary was punched for subbing out Boston’s John Beecher. A little over a minute later, the Bruins took a 1-0 lead when Justin Brazeau found the rebound of a Morgan Geekie shot and hit the backhand into the net with 47.2 seconds left in the first frame.

Early in the middle period, Washington ran a power play for the second time, and for most of the two minutes the Caps struggled to get onto the Boston ice and prepare. In the waning seconds of the man advantage, Washington finally got a clean opening and began moving the puck around the Bruins’ zone. From center point, Rasmus Sandin set up the tee shot for Jakub Vrana, whose one-timer from the right point hit the back corner of the cage behind Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman at 4:50, just nine seconds before the end of the power play.

Vrana has now scored in each of his last three games and Sandin reached the 100-point plateau with the game’s most important helper.

“It’s nice that someone went in,” says Vrana. “But at the same time, we really wanted to win tonight. I think everyone did their best tonight. Sometimes it’s hockey. You win and you lose some things and of course it’s tough before half-time, but I think overall we played well.”

Forty minutes into the game, neither team had anything to offer in 5v5 play; Boston led 9-4 in even shooting after two periods, but the Caps had a 23-18 advantage in even shooting.

Ten seconds into the third period, the Caps had their best chance to take and possibly extend the lead, but despite some decent zone time during Wahlstrom’s big penalty, they were unable to create much of a threat.

“I think it was a little bit the same as 5-on-5,” Tom Wilson said. “We just didn’t really put the pucks in the net and were a little too strong in the court. They pushed us to the outside and maybe we just needed to find a few more pucks underneath them and put them in the net, probably similar to what we did throughout the game.”

“The puck possession was OK, but it wasn’t threatening enough to the net,” Carbery said of the Caps’ power-play deficiencies in the third period. “We tried to make some plays; (Connor McMichael) tries a (seam pass) and it goes off someone’s skate. Some play like that.

“Tonight we weren’t great on offense with the puck to really do much (damage) on the power play or 5-on-5.”