Bruins shake off the leaders
Krejci, Marchand, Bergeron each score twice in matinee
The Bruins took a couple of roundhouse rights on the chin — both figuratively and literally — from the ever-nasty Washington Capitals but shook them both off to beat the East Division leaders, 6-3, at the Garden on Sunday. The B’s are six points behind the Capitals with three games in hand.
The Bruins lost an early two-goal lead, fell behind, then ultimately scored four consecutive times to beat the Caps for their fourth straight win before they take to the road for a five-game trip.
The old reliables were front-and-center in this one as the B’s got pairs of goals from Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and a rejuvenated David Krejci. Tuukka Rask (30 saves) also made a handful of Grade-A stops.
“The big boys came to play today, and we’re dangerous when that happens,” said coach Bruce Cassidy.
The Caps are dangerous for a number of reasons.
Washington got its physical style going after falling behind in the first. It started when Garnet Hathaway hit Jeremy Lauzon well after the horn to end the first period. Then, late in the second Alex Ovechkin, went in high on Charlie McAvoy.
Then things got particularly nasty. First, Tom Wilson, who had taken a sevengame suspension last month for a head shot on Brandon Carlo, saw a falling Sean Kuraly and nailed him with an elbow to the back of the head. No call, except a minor to Jarred Tinordi for trying to avenge the hit.
Then later, Hathaway hit Tinordi between the 8 and the 4, driving his face into the dasher. At first, there was no call again. But the bucket of blood that Tinordi dripped on his way to the bench perhaps made the officials take a second look and Hathaway was given a five-minute major for boarding.
Though he essentially excused Wilson’s hit as incidental because Kuraly was falling down, Cassidy did bring up some of the other questionable hits, including the Ovechkin one, which he felt the superstar left his feet for.
“The Hathaway one, it’s from behind. It’s tough on Jarred, he comes out with some facial injuries and hopefully he’s not concussed. But at the end of the day, that’s boarding — five, two, however you look at it,” said Cassidy. “But again, physical with Washington again. Looks like that’s going to be the style of play. Our guys just have to be prepared for it and make sure we dish out our share of hits as well.”
The B’s suddenly out-of-synch power play couldn’t deliver a knockout blow on the five-minute major but Marchand did with an empty-netter with 1:44 left.
Less than a month before the end of the regular season, the B’s now appear to be jelling, with GM Don Sweeney’s acquisitions — Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar and Mike Reilly — paying dividends in various ways. They were able to prevail over the tight-checking Islanders in a two-game sweep, then shrug off the Caps’ rough stuff.
“There’s always a team that’s a little bit better at some things, but I feel like our team is good against any style,” said Cassidy. “The moves Donny made at the deadline helped us a lot. Not only with those three players, but I think it’s galvanized a few of our guys, like Krejci. All of a sudden he has a Hall on his wing and now he’s more excited to play. It moves a guy over because Lazar goes into the middle and makes that line better. Reilly now complements a partner that is more of a defender because he can move the puck. It’s a little bit of all of that.”
The B’s took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, though the Capitals had to feel good after halving a twogoal deficit with 9.9 seconds left in the period.
The Caps had a great chance to jump on top when Connor Clifton was given a double minor for high-sticking Lars Eller. But by the end of the four minutes, the B’s had a 1-0 lead, thanks to the shorthanded dynamic duo of Bergeron and Marchand. Marchand moved in on the forecheck to thwart John Carlson’s reverse pass behind the net. The puck popped over the Washington net, and dribbled through T.J. Oshie’s legs to Bergeron, who then lifted a backhander over goalie Vitek Vanecek’s blocker arm at 12:02.
At 13:56, the B’s made it 2-0. Off the rush, Clifton fumbled Craig Smith’s pass but chased it down deep on the right side. He zipped a pass through the low slot for a Krejci tap-in.
But if a shorthanded goal can be a killer, the Caps delivered their own dagger in the waning seconds. Nicklas Backstrom did an amazing job of controlling an aerial pass in the neutral zone, ladling it down and then beating McAvoy at the blue line to break in alone. Rask, who’d made several big saves in the first (13 in all), stopped Backstrom’s in-tight shot with his glove, but he could not control it. The trailing Oshie got inside position on Reilly, who had not gotten to the puck on a pinch in the offensive zone, and Oshie knifed in to chip it home.
Early in the second period, Clifton took another double minor for high-sticking, and this time the B’s were not so fortunate. The B’s soon found themselves down a goal courtesy of power-play goals from Oshie and deadline acquisition Anthony Mantha.
A couple of weeks ago, that might have been a devastating turn of events. On Sunday it was a mere flesh wound.
They evened it up at 6:33 with a good answer shift from the top line. Operating behind the Washington net, Bergeron passed the puck out front, where both David Pastrnak and Marchand were. While Pastrnak took a phantom shot, causing Vanecek to react, Marchand pulled to his right with the puck and beat the helpless goalie with a backhander.
The B’s pulled ahead again at 16:02. After a truly frustrating power play in which the B’s could not/would not pull the trigger on a good shot, Hall and Smith won a battle along the left boards. Smith fired a pass over to Krejci on the right side. Krejci calmly waited for Dmitry Orlov to slide by before Krejci beat Vanecek to the short side.
Before the period was over, the B’s had their twogoal lead back. After an Ovechkin shot produced a long rebound, Marchand and Pastrnak broke out on a 2-on-1. Marchand’s pass was deflected, but Pastrnak spotted Bergeron trailing down the middle of the ice and he hit the captain for his second goal at 17:45.
The B’s endured a couple of cheap shots in the third, but they were on their way to victory.
“It’s very encouraging That’s the poise you want to see during the course of a game,” said Bergeron. “It was nice to see that poise and confidence.”