Special Teams Pace Bruins to Game 4 Victory

BOSTON - The Bruins wanted to make the Capitals feel it on Friday night.
When Kevan Miller went down midway through the second period after taking a high and heavy check from Dmitry Orlov, the Black & Gold had an opportunity to avenge the hit on the scoreboard. And with the elder statesmen of their back end on the way to the hospital, they made sure to capitalize.
Just 33 seconds into Orlov's roughing penalty, Brad Marchand struck for a power-play marker to open the scoring and set the tone for a stellar night from Boston's special teams units. Behind a 3-for-5 performance from the power play and a 6-for-7 outing by the penalty kill, Boston secured a 4-1 victory over the Capitals in Game 4 at TD Garden and opened up a 3-1 series lead in their best-of-seven, first-round matchup.

"You never want to see a hit like that," said Matt Grzelcyk. "Millsy's a huge part of our team. He sticks up for everyone, so we wanted to do that for him, and making sure that we're doing it the right way, that we're beating them on the scoreboard, and not taking stupid penalties. Obviously, we got caught in the box a couple too many times, but we responded when we needed to. We played the right way for most of the game and it was a great effort."
Grzelcyk notched a response tally of his own late in the third after Anthony Mantha ran Tuukka Rask in the crease, resulting in a goalie interference call (the netminder, who set the B's all-time record for postseason wins with the 54th of his career, came away unscathed). The Charlestown native proceeded to take a feed from Charlie McAvoy and rifled home a one-timer from the left circle for Boston's third power-play marker of the night and a 4-1 lead with 5:10 remaining.
"Tuukka's a huge part of the team and you never want to see a hit like that to your goalie," said Grzelcyk. "Like I said before, we wanted to make them pay, the right way, and not run around stupid. Obviously, if they're going to keep taking penalties like that then we have to make them pay on the power play, and we did a good job of that tonight."

While converting in two of the first three games of the series, Boston's power play was not functioning with much fluidity during a 2-for-11 stretch entering the night. But with emotions high and the Bruins looking for some payback after losing Miller, who was transported to a local hospital for further testing and evaluation following the hit at the 7:27 mark of the second, the advantage flourished.
"You always want to use a power play to gain momentum to get good chances," said McAvoy, who picked up three assists, one on each of Boston's power-play tallies to set a career playoff high for both helpers and points in a game.
"If you don't score, you at least want to tilt the ice in your favor. But I think we kind of had a mindset of, 'Hey, let's make these guys pay in response to the penalties that were taken.' You always want to score, you always want to be productive on the power play, whether it's gaining momentum or scoring.
"I think we responded well to the penalties that were taken and ultimately making them pay on the scoreboard."
While the Bruins' power play snapped out of its drought, David Pastrnak also put an end to a frustrating stretch of his own. The winger had landed 19 shots on goal through the first three games of the series, including a game-high nine in Wednesday's double-overtime thriller, but had yet to find the back of the net.
"I think I just kept trying to keep shooting," said Pastrnak. "Even last game, I think I had a lot of great opportunities to score and then sometimes the goalie just made a good save or I rushed it a little bit. So, it's always a good sign when you're getting the chances and you know it's right there.
"At the same time, sometimes is frustrating when you're getting a lot of chances, but it doesn't go in…you just have to stay with it and the main focus is to just keep shooting pucks on net."

Last season's Rocket Richard Trophy winner, bound to break through at some point, did just that. After initially being credited for Marchand's goal, Pastrnak made sure there was no doubt this time around as he took McAvoy's dish and ripped a wrister far-side by the blocker of Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov to give the Bruins a 2-0 advantage just 29 seconds into the third period.
"I mean, it was obviously nice to score a goal, but the important part is that we're winning and that's the main focus," said Pastrnak. "That's the beauty of the playoffs, nothing really matters, who is the hero every night, as long as you get the win it feels amazing and the next day you just wake up and you go again, back to work."
Pastrnak complimented the work of McAvoy and David Krejci in helping to give a jolt to Boston's top power-play unit, which for most of the season featured Pastrnak, Marchand, Grzelcyk, Patrice Bergeron, and Nick Ritchie. With the lead group struggling to find much consistency, particularly of late, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy opted for a change of personnel.
"That obviously got a little different look," said Pastrnak. "A couple more one timers with Krech and Chuckie being righties, too, so I think the biggest part is we're just moving. I played a couple of power plays in front of the net, and it really doesn't matter who's on which position as long as we're filling each other's spots.
"It's been obviously going well and Krech is a great playmaker and Chuckie is a really big threat with his big shot so hopefully we can keep this going."

While Boston's power play erupted for three goals on five chances, the penalty kill was even stronger. The B's kill shut down six of Washington's seven opportunities, with the one Capitals' goal coming off of fluky deflection when Alex Ovechkin's broken-stick blast - which was headed for the far corner - deflected off of Brandon Carlo's skate and by Rask just under five minutes into the third.
"All facets, solid. Obviously special teams speak for themselves," Cassidy said of his club's effort. "Structure was excellent, had some big blocks on Ovechkin, kept some pucks out of the bumper, appropriate pressure. [Assistant coaches] Joe [Sacco] and Kevin [Dean] obviously did a good job getting those guys ready for this power play, and our power play we made a few adjustments here. Myself and [assistant coach] Jay [Pandolfo] sat down, and [on Friday night] they paid off.
"We got some shots we wanted and 5-on-5, I thought, boy, we didn't give up much. Protected the neutral zone well against a good transition team. Guys worked back into position to protect the slot, so just a lot of good stuff defensively. Offensively on the power play… and enough 5-on-5 I thought we stuck to our trying to play down low and create some stuff 1-on-1 around the net.
"The other part of it is the first period. Guys can get frustrated…it looked like we had the better of the play and halfway through the game the puck just wasn't going in. Their goalie was excellent. Stuck with it and got rewarded eventually."