Craig Smith scored 5:48 into double overtime on Wednesday night, as the Boston Bruins took a 2-1 series lead in their first round East Division playoff with a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals at TD Garden in Boston. It was the first playoff game at the Garden for the Bruins since a Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Blues in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, 707 days ago.
Washington started their third goalie already in the series in Illya Samsonov. Emergency backup goalie Craig Anderson who took over for an injured Vitek Vanecek in Game 1 and played the entire Game 2 was out because of body maintenance, and the Caps were also without center Lars Eller due to a lower body injury substained in Game 2. Boston had the better chances in the first period, outshooting Washington 10-4. Both teams had three powerplay opportunities with the Bruins having a 5 on 3 for 55 seconds, but couldn’t come through and the teams went to the locker room scoreless into the first intermission.
Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring for Washington with his first of the playoffs on the powerplay at 8:21 of the middle period, taking a nice pass for a one timer from the bottom of the faceoff circle to the right of goalie Tuuka Rask. Anthony Mantha set him up with a steal behind the net to the left of Rask. It only took the Bruins 56 seconds to even it up on a spectacular goal from Taylor Hall. Boston kept the puck in at the blue line, and Smith slid a backhanded pass from the top of the left faceoff circle to a wide open Hall in front. Hall had his back to Samsonov, but he spun around kept the puck on his stick and roofed a forehand over the Caps goalie to make it 1-1. Nic Dowd would help take the lead back as he re-directed a Garnet Hathaway shot from the low slot into the net at 18:15, and the visitors led 2-1 after 40 minutes.
Boston had an opportunity to tie it early in the third period with their fourth powerplay, but again couldn’t come through. Later in the period though on at 11:32 they did come through on powerplay number five to even the game once again that eventually sent it to the overtime. David Krejci from the point dropped a pass to Charlie McAvoy down low, who then sent it to Patrice Bergeron in the low slot. Bergeron then sent it onto the stick of Brad Marchand, who batted the puck into the net to the left of Samsonov. In the first extra session, the B’s had the best chance about 6:30 in when a rebound in the crease came right to Marchand who couldn’t get a handle on it. Boston outshot Washington 17-5 in the fourth period. David Pastrnak had a good chance almost four minutes into the double overtime right in on net, but lost control of the puck and slid hard into the end boards. Smith ended the third straight overtime game in the series when Samsonov came out of his net and left a pass behind his own net for a teammate, but Smith won the race for the puck and scooped it up and wrapped it in past the shocked Caps goalie to give the Bruins the win.
Rask stopped 35 of 37 shots in net, with Smith picking up the game winning goal and also an assist on the night. Samsonov stopped 40 of 43 in the loss, and no Washington skaters had multiple points. Both teams went 1-5 on the powerplay. It is the only the eighth time in NHL playoff history that a team has used three different goaltenders in a series. A pivotal Game 4 is set for a 6:30 faceoff in Boston on Friday night.
