Bruins ride four-goal first period to 7-3 rout of Caps
BOSTON: Brad Marchand and Anders Bjork scored 27 seconds apart in a fourgoal first period that chased Braden Holtby, and Charlie Coyle added a short-handed goal to help the Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals 7-3 on Monday.
Tuukka Rask made 39 saves to snap his five-game losing streak as the Bruins opened a 5-0 lead and sat on it while the Capitals outshot them 34-6 over the last two periods.
Patrice Bergeron had two goals, including an emptynetter that made it 7-3, and David Krejci had two assists and an empty-netter.
Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston, who stopped a three-game skid. The Capitals had won eight straight games in Boston and 16 of the previous 17 match-ups overall.
Boston led 5-0 when Alex Ovechkin scored with about five minutes gone in the second period, and Lars Eller deflected one past Rask as a power play expired late in the third to make it 5-2.
After Krejci’s empty netter, Garnet Hathaway took advantage of a Bruins lapse to make it 6-3. Holtby allowed four goals on 11 shots for Washington, who had won 10 of their previous 12 games. Ilya Samsonov replaced him to start the second period and stopped three of the four shots he faced in almost 38 minutes.
At Toronto, Mitch Marner scored twice and added an assist in a wild 59-second span midway through the third period, and Toronto beat Carolina 8-6.
Tyson Barrie and Pierre Engvall sealed the victory with an empty-netter.
Jason Spezza, William Nylander, Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Tyson Barrie scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won five straight. Pierre Engvall sealed the victory with an empty-netter.
Martin Necas and Erik Haula had two goals apiece for the Hurricanes.