Cheapened by a dozen
B’s good, can’t halt Caps jinx
WASHINGTON — The Bruins had Washington on the ropes early, and again late, when it appeared the their ridiculous losing streak against the Capitals might finally end.
At the end of last night’s terrifically entertaining game — 65 minutes of intense, physical, playoff-level competition — the outcome was decided by the stick of one Alex Ovechkin.
From a Bruins point of view, this was hardly the ideal outcome.
Because it was Ovechkin, the greatest goal scorer of his generation, who snapped a forehander off the crossbar and down into the net as the fifth shooter of the shootout, giving the Capitals a 4-3 victory, pushing their winning streak against the Bruins to 12 games.
The Bruins earlier delivered a super first period, with a great forechecking game that forced numerous Washington turnovers and grabbed a quick 2-0 lead on goals 49 seconds apart by David Backes and Noel Acciari.
The B’s were 0-for-5 on their power play and had other chances to add to their lead, but did not.
“Hopefully, no one was fooling themselves to think that they weren’t going to make a push,” said Backes. “They weren’t necessarily on their game from that start. When you’re able to get a 2-0 lead, you hope that you can step on their throat and finish them off.”
Instead the Caps, much better in Period 2, stormed back with a pair of goals to level the score at 2-2 through 40 minutes.
“At the end of the day they’re a good team for a reason,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “Obviously we want to extend leads, and I thought we had opportunities to, but just didn’t finish. They’re a good team. They’ve got pride. And they were better than us (in the second period).”
Lars Eller got the first goal on a long-range wrister past Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin, who appeared off-balance on the play.
The second was a familiar power play one-timer from the left circle by Ovechkin, beating the B’s goalie high on the shortside.
In the third, a second goal by Backes restored the B’s lead, 3-2, and their hope that they might get their first win against this opponent since March 2014.
Washington tied it again off a wild goalmouth scramble at 11:22 of the third, as former Bruins forward Brett Connolly was credited with the goal, which caromed in off the skate of Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller.
From there ensued the utter chaos of a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime session, with Grade-A chances at both ends. And then the shootout, which was decided when Ovechkin snapped a bullet past Khudobin that no goalie could have stopped.
“We got a couple of different leads during the game,” said Backes. “They’re a good team. They’re going to make a push. We surrendered a few plays when it should just be simple, get it deep, put our forecheck on them, make them run out of numbers or room in the neutral zone and put it back in deep on them. Then we can make them make a mistake and we can put it in the back of the net.
“The (loser’s) point is good and all. But I think (last night) was an effort where we could have had both of them.”
The game plan for the B’s was a strong start.
“The reasons (for the streak) — there’s a number of them — but the biggest one is that we end up chasing the game against them a lot,” said Cassidy before the game. “That’s going to be our focus: Hopefully we get off to a better start.”
And they did, as the Bruins had a dream start. They carried the play early and popped two of their first four shots past Braden Holtby for a 2-0 lead just 2:12 into the game.
The B’s opened the scoring on their second shift. Red-hot Riley Nash did the work on the forecheck deep in the home team end, gained the puck and passed from the left corner to the net-front where the on-rushing Backes knocked a onetime forehand past Holtby.
Just 49 seconds later, the B’s had another strong forecheck going, with first Sean Kuraly and then Noel Acciari knocking defenders off the puck. Acciari circled the net and came out on the right side for an in-close backhander on Holtby. He hugged the post well on that one, but left space open as Acciari lifted in the rebound.