Brad Marchand scored his seventh career playoff game winning goal on Monday night in overtime, as the Boston Bruins evened their first round playoff series with the Washington Capitals at 1-1 with a 4-3 victory at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
The teams started out fast and furious, each scoring a pair of first period goals. Boston struck first when Charlie Coyle dragged the puck across the blue line and cut towards the net at the right faceoff dots, faking Washington goalie Craig Anderson, and going behind the net right to left where he found a wide open Jake Debrusk who tapped into the empty net in the blue paint with Anderson totally out of position at 5:05. The Caps responded right away on the powerplay 1:26 later when T.J. Oshie deflected in a Alex Ovechkin shot. David Pastrnak helped regain the lead when he took a turnover along the right wing at 9:21, shuffling a pass to the captain Patrice Bergeron who fired it top shelf into the net from the high slot to make it 2-1 Bruins. Garet Hathaway had the answer for Washington scoring at 16:42 to tie it back up after the first 20 minutes.
Anderson settled down in net for the Capitals, after allowing two goals on the first five shots, stopping the next 37 on net. Despite Boston having the better chances, no goals were scored in the second period and it would be tied headed to the third period. Washington had a pair of powerplay chances in the first five minutes of the third, but Boston was able to kill both of them off. Shortly after the second kill though, the B’s got caught on a line change and Hathaway scored his second of the night on a two on one down low on a one timer off a feed from Dmitry Orlov at 7:04 to give the hosts their first lead of the night. The visitors forced overtime when Taylor Hall threw one at the front of the net while skating down the left wing. Several Bruins jammed away at the loose puck in the crease, but it was Hall who poked it in after skating back out to the front at 17:11. It only took 39 seconds for Boston to end it in the extra session. David Krejci kept a puck alive at the Caps blue line sending to it Matt Grzeclyk, who rifled a pass left to right to Marchand who one timed it from the faceoff circle past Anderson who never had a chance sliding left to right.
Tuuka Rask made 36 saves in the win. Grzeclyk was the only multiple point scorer for Boston with two assists. Anderson ended up with 44 saves, as the Bruins outshot the Capitals 48-39. Hathaway had the two goals and Orlov two assists in the Washington loss. The B’s went 0-2 on the powerplay, while the Caps were 1-4. The series shifts to Boston and TD Garden for the next two games, starting with Game 3 on Wednesday night at 6:30.
