It could have been the death blow. Fifty-seven seconds into overtime, Hampus Lindholm got caught with his stick in a bad position and inadvertently whacked T.J. Oshie in the face, drawing blood in the process. The Capitals’ power play, which has been humming along like old times for the last couple months, would get four minutes to try to win the game.
Andrew Raycroft on Jim Montgomery calling out his team
Instead, it was the Bruins’ penalty kill that stepped up, stole the spotlight, and sent the game to a shootout with a massive kill. It would take five rounds, but shootout goals from Jake DeBrusk, David Pastrnak and Kevin Shattenkirk ultimately lifted Boston to a 3-2 victory in Washington.
Jeremy Swayman made four saves on the overtime kill and stopped 18 of the 20 shots he faced overall on the night. His best sequence in overtime was back-to-back saves on Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome seconds apart.
Brandon Carlo was on the ice for a whopping 3:06 of the four-minute kill. Andrew Peeke was right behind him at 2:46, and he had a big block on an Ovechkin one-timer. Charlie Coyle led the forwards by killing more than half the penalty.
It would have been a frustrating loss had the Bruins not killed that penalty or gone on to lose in the shootout. They were the better team the vast majority of the night, allowing a season-low 16 shots on goal in regulation. One Capitals goal came on a bad Boston line change, and the other came when the Bruins got a little sloppy in the second period and took back-to-back penalties.
With the win, the Bruins remain two points ahead of the Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division, although Florida has a game in hand and does own the tiebreaker.
Here are three takeaways from the Bruins’ win:
Lindholm saves a goal, then scores a goal
Long before Lindholm committed that potentially costly high stick in overtime, he made a positive impact at both ends of the ice, especially in the first period.
The Capitals had more jump than the Bruins out of the gate and got a great scoring chance in the game’s opening minute. A Charlie McAvoy giveaway in the offensive zone led to a 2-on-1 the other way with Ovechkin leading the charge.
Swayman made the initial save on Ovechkin, but Connor McMichael pounced on the rebound, deked around Swayman, and seemingly had an open net. Except Lindholm was in perfect position to block McMichael’s shot off the goal line with his stick.
It was actually the second straight game that Lindholm saved a goal off the line, as he did so Wednesday in Tampa as well. And if you believe in the hockey gods, then perhaps it was them that rewarded Lindholm with a goal at the other end later in the first period.
After a David Pastrnak pull-up and a pass across from Pavel Zacha, Lindholm flicked a shot towards the net from the left point that sailed past everyone – including a ducking Brad Marchand – and into the net.
While goal-scoring isn’t Lindholm’s primary focus, this was long overdue. It was just his second goal of the season, and his first since Nov. 14. He had gone 50 games without one prior to Saturday.
Lindholm’s usual D partner, Brandon Carlo, was on the ice with him for that goal, but the two were actually split up most of the night for a second straight game. This time, Lindholm moved up to a loaded-up first pairing with McAvoy, while Carlo was paired with McAvoy’s usual partner, Matt Grzelcyk.
With Lindholm and Carlo’s usual diet of heavy defensive-zone starts split more evenly among all six defensemen, both seemed to be more freed up than usual to get involved offensively. Lindholm scored the goal obviously, and Carlo had six shot attempts, landing three on goal.
Beecher making his case to stay in
After the Capitals tied the game at 1-1 early in the second, Johnny Beecher answered just 1:02 later with a great individual effort.
Beecher poked the puck away from Dylan Strome just inside the defensive blue line, then beat Strome and John Carlson in a foot race, skated in on a breakaway, and slid a backhander through Charlie Lindgren’s legs for his seventh goal of the season.
Beecher also landed three hits on the night, blocked three shots, turned in 1:44 of penalty kill work, and won five of 10 faceoffs.
The rookie continues to make a stronger and stronger case to be in the lineup come Game 1 of the playoffs. The combination of speed, physicality, defense, penalty-killing and faceoffs certainly looks like a valuable playoff skillset, and Beecher has gotten better on board battles the more time he’s spent playing wing.
Pat Maroon is going to play once he’s healthy enough to do so, but it probably shouldn’t be at Beecher’s expense. In fact, all three of the fourth-line JBs – Beecher, Jesper Boqvist and Justin Brazeau – are doing enough to stay in. James van Riemsdyk, meanwhile, is seemingly playing himself out of a lineup spot, and Jakub Lauko just doesn’t bring quite as much to the table as the others.
The Bruins will have to figure out who from that group is capable of playing on the third line. Brazeau got a shot there Saturday, and the results were encouraging. While they didn’t score, the Bruins out-attempted the Capitals 11-6 with Brazeau, Morgan Geekie and Jake DeBrusk on the ice.
Loaded-up top line
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery did a little experimenting all over his lineup on Saturday. Just like he loaded up his top D pair with McAvoy and Lindholm, he also loaded up his top line with David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand flanking Pavel Zacha.
It’s a line the Bruins have used plenty this season, but not much recently. So, wanting to get them at least one game back together so they can remember what it’s like to play together is understandable.
The results were good. It was that line on the ice for Lindholm’s goal. Pastrnak carried the puck into the offensive zone and made a nice pull-up play before passing over to Zacha, who then fed Lindholm. Marchand was at the net-front wreaking havoc.
The Bruins doubled up the Capitals in shot attempts (15-7), shots on goal (6-3) and high-danger chances (2-1) when the top line was on the ice. It will be interesting to see if Montgomery keeps Marchand, Zacha and Pastrnak together Tuesday in Nashville, or if this was just a one-game fling.