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.�
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