Nic Dowd tipped in a T.J. Oshie shot in overtime on Saturday night, as the Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in game one of the opening round series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
Tom Wilson opened the scoring at 6:22 of the first period to make it 1-0 Washington. Boston dominated faceoff wins in the opening period, and converted on that to tie it at 13:10. Curtis Lazar won a draw and got it to Jake Debrusk, who fired a quick wrist shot from the high slot that beat Capitals goalie Vitek Vanecek. Vanecek was injured on the play and didn’t return to the game. Branden Dillon regained the lead for the hosts at 8:44 of the second period, but that was answered on a powerplay goal by Nick Ritchie at 16:38 to tie it back up 2-2. The teams went scorless in the third sending the game to overtime. At 4:41 of the extra session, Wilson dropped one back to Oshie at the blue line who one timed a shot through traffic that was deflected in by Dowd to end it and give Washington a 1-0 series lead.
Tuuka Rask had 29 saves in the loss for Boston, and Lazar, David Pastrnak, and Charlie McAvoy had one assist each. Wilson had one goal and one assist for Washington, and Craig Anderson got the win in net in relief of Vanecek stopping 21 of 22 shots. The Bruins had more chances in the game to do damage but went 1-4 on the powerplay, while the Caps went 0-1. Game 2 of the best of seven is Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in Washington.
