David Pastrnak had a goal and three assists, and David Krejci added a goal and two assists in helping the Boston Bruins to a 5-2 win in the season opener over the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.
Washington came out fast in the first period and had a real early chance with a powerplay 2:38 in, but goaltender Linus Ullmark and the Boston defense shut that down. The Bruins then took the lead at 7:58 on the extra man when the captain Patrice Bergeron buried a rebound off a Pastrnak shot for the first goal of the season. Pastrnak then scored one of his own at 15:03 to extend the lead, skating from the side boards to in between the circles on his backhand and turning and firing a shot through the legs of Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper.
It was 3-0 when Mike Reilly led a race up the ice, sending a pass left to right to Pastrnak, who then found a streaking Taylor Hall who fired one home from the bottom of the left faceoff circle at 6:14 of the second period that was the eventual game winner. Washington got on the board just 1:20 later when Anthony Mantha scored on a 2 on 1 breakout. Conor Sheary cut the deficit for the Caps to 3-2 later in the period at 12:43, slamming one into the back of the net on a 3 on 1 advantage. The hosts had a chance to tie it with a powerplay with 2:06 left in the second, but couldn’t convert and Brandon Carlo caught a bounce and had a breakaway coming out of the penalty box in the waining seconds but was stopped by Kuemper to keep it a one goal game after 40 minutes.
Ullmark made several big saves early in the third period, and Boston finished off the victory when Krejci scored helped by a third assist from Pastrnak at 16:17. Hampus Lindholm tallied another goal at 18:55, as the B’s won for head coach Jim Montgomery in his first game behind the bench. Ullmark ended up with 33 saves, with Pastrnak and Krejci putting up a total of seven points. Kuemper stopped 25 shots in the loss for Washington. The Bruins play their home opener on Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Arizona Coyotes at TD Garden.
