For the last four years, whatever can go wrong versus the Washington Capitals usually does. Even though the Boston Bruins outshot Washington 37-22, they lost 5-3 for their 11th straight loss to the Caps.
The Capitals thought they had taken a 1-0 lead just over two minutes into the game as Lars Eller got in behind both Charlie McAvoy and Jake DeBrusk to score off an Anton Khudobin juicy rebound. However, Bruce Cassidy challenged the play for being offside and sure enough, after a quick review, the goal was taken off the board as the Capitals entered the zone before the puck.
The game appeared to be headed into the first intermission without a goal until Jakub Vrana scored with just 2:26 remaining in the opening period. Vrana jumped on a loose puck in the neutral zone, used a burst of speed to brush off Matt Grzelcyk and then beat Khudobin with a forehand shot high to the blocker side.
The Bruins responded 4:22 into the second period with a power play goal to tie the game. Brad Marchand got the puck below the goal line from Danton Heinen and he found Patrice Bergeron in the slot where he beat Braden Holtby to the near post. The primary assist was the 400th point of Marchand's NHL career.
Nicklas Backstrom broke the tie with a power play goal of his own 12 minutes into the middle frame. Backstrom waited at the back post and was rewarded with an easy tap-in goal off a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov.
The third period belonged to Alex Chiasson as he scored twice to pull the Caps away from the Bruins. His first goal came about eight minutes in when he got inside positioning on Brandon Carlo at the front of the net and stuffed a pass from Christian Djoos under the pad of Khudobin.
Chiasson extended the lead to 4-1 with a shorthanded at 11:31 as he blocked a shot by Torey Krug, then won a footrace down the ice and flipped the puck into the Bruins net.
David Krejci gave the Bruins some life less than five minutes later as he deflected a shot from the point by Charlie McAvoy past Holtby. Jake DeBrusk was credited with the secondary assist on Krejci's fifth goal on the season.
Alex Ovechkin added an empty-netter at 18:31 for his league leading 22nd goal of the season.
Bergeron added another power play with just 27 seconds remaining in the game with a wrist shot from the right dot. For some reason, Barry Trotz challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld.
The Bruins will get their last chance to end this four year losing streak in two weeks as the wrap up their season series with the Caps in Washington.
