The Washington Capitals defeated the Boston Bruins 3-0 at TD Garden on Saturday to snap a six-game losing streak. Alex Ovechkin scored and assisted for the fourth straight game.
With 27 seconds remaining in the third period, Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky for the record most of empty-net goals in NHL history with his 57th career goal.
“Without a doubt, our most comprehensive match of the year,” stated Spencer Carbery, the coach of Washington. “We were focused on all the areas where we needed to be from beginning to end.”
For the Capitals (23-20-7), who were 0-5-1 during their run, Dylan Strome scored, T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist, and Charlie Lindgren made 18 saves.
Lindgren’s shutout was his third of the NHL season and his sixth overall.
“Again, I mean, that’s a credit to how hard I think the guys in front of me worked tonight,” Lindgren remarked after Boston had eight shots through two quarters. “We wouldn’t have 18 shots against us tonight if we hadn’t worked as hard as we did.”
For the Bruins (32-11-9), who had won three straight and were shut out for the first time this year, Jeremy Swayman made 25 stops. Charlie Coyle’s 10-game point streak—11 assists, 4 goals—ended, ending his career-high.
Jim Montgomery, the coach of Boston, stated, “I don’t have answers.” “I would have given them to [the players] if I had.” However, we won’t accept that since it is unacceptable. Either things or we will change. That is the crux of the matter.
During a power play at 1:05 in the second period, Oshie gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead. Max Pacioretty fed Oshie from behind the net, inside the left circle.
Defenseman Brandon Carlo of the Boston Bostonians stated, “There may be times when we don’t execute as well.” “But it’s unfortunate that we didn’t succeed in that department tonight—that is, in getting everyone to buy in—because that is where our effort always wants to be.”
At 3:24 of the third, Strome scored his 20th goal of the year, extending the lead to 2-0 by slipping the puck under the crossbar during a 2-on-1 rush with Ovechkin.
Strome remarked, “Those are the kinds of goals that just kind of give you momentum for the game.” “Ovi” made a really good pass. Ovi recorded it perfectly on my tape after [Oshie] did a fantastic job fighting on the wall, and I only needed to move it upstairs to finish the job.
In the third period, Boston had three opportunities to use the power play, but they were unsuccessful.
Washington forward Beck Malenstyn said, “I thought every [penalty kill] unit that went over there did a great job taking lanes away.” “I believed that by applying pressure, limiting their time and space, and preventing them from making plays, we were able to achieve our goals.”
At 19:33, Ovechkin scored into an empty net with help from Malenstyn to seal a 3-0 victory.
Brad Marchand, the captain of the Bruins, remarked, “We had to be better.” More fights had to be won by us. We need to improve in that area so that we can look at it for the next game and see how they were getting to the puck first and winning every battle.
NOTES: Pacioretty left the game for a little while at 18:13 in the first period due to a spear from Matt Grzelcyk, a defenseman for the Bruins, in the offensive zone. Grzelcyk was given a game misconduct and a five-minute major. Pacioretty came back for the second half. … With his 189th goal with Washington, Oshie moved up to ninth place in the franchise’s history, surpassing Bobby Carpenter’s 188. After 23 games this season, Lindgren became the eighth goalkeeper for the Capitals to post three shutouts. The most recent was Ilya Samsonov, who accomplished this in his first eight games in 2021–2022. .. Since losing 3-0 to the Seattle Kraken on January 12, 2023, the Bruins had not been defeated. .. On his season debut, Bruins forward Anthony Richard had one shot on goal in 10:38 of ice time. It was his first game with Boston out of his 16 NHL games.