Caps Lose Late Lead in OT Loss

Two nights after Nic Dowd gave the Caps a 3-2 victory over Boston in the opener of the best-of-seven set between the two teams, the Bruins returned fire with an overtime winner of their own in Monday's Game 2 at Capital One Arena, evening the series at 1-1.

Washington was less than three minutes away from taking a 2-0 series lead to Boston for Wednesday's Game 3, but it couldn't quite close the deal.
The Bruins got even late in the third and Brad Marchand won it for Boston with a one-timer from the right dot just 39 seconds into the extra session, giving the B's a 4-3 victory.
David Krejci kept Brenden Dillon's clearing attempt in at the right point, then passed across to Matt Grzelcyk who found a seam and fed Marchand for the game-winner.
"I don't know how it got up to [Krecji]," recounts Marchand, "but he did a great job of settling everything down the way he does. It got it over to [Grzelcyk]. I think he went to the net and drew everybody to him, and [Grzelcyk] made a great play to get it over, and it went in."
Marchand's goal came on Boston's 48th shot on net of the night, and on the only shot for either side in overtime. The Caps kept the Bruins' top six forwards quiet in the series opener, but Boston got three of its four goals from that group in Tuesday's game, and on two of the three goals, Washington was guilty of failure to clear the zone just prior to the goal.
"We knew they were going to come back tonight with a little more bite offensively," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit with execution, and so there are things I think we can do better as we head to Boston."

Washington roared out of the starting gates, buzzing the Boston zone and putting pucks toward Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, who managed to stop a trio of early chances from in tight, two from Anthony Mantha and one off the stick of Daniel Sprong. Although the Caps dominated the first five minutes, the Bruins opened the scoring.
Just after the five-minute mark, Charlie Coyle carried wide in Washington ice, drawing Caps goaltender Craig Anderson away from his crease. Coyle circled the net and fed Jake Debrusk in front for an easy empty-netter, and a 1-0 Boston lead at 5:06.
A dozen seconds after Michael Raffl drew a holding call on Boston's David Pastrnak, the Caps got even on the power play. From his left dot office, Alex Ovechkin fielded a John Carlson pass, reset, and then ripped a wrist shot toward the net. T.J. Oshie tipped it past Rusk to make it a 1-1 game at 6:31.
Just before the midpoint of the first, Dmitry Orlov's high flip clearing bid wasn't high enough, enabling Pastrnak to reach up and keep it in. The Boston winger threw a lateral feed to Patrice Bergeron in the slot, and the Boston captain buried a shot to the shelf to restore the Boston lead at 9:21.
Over seven minutes later, the Caps squared the score once again. Lars Eller won a left dot draw from Bergeron, pulling it back to Orlov at the left point. Orlov rolled a changeup of a shot toward the net, and Garnet Hathaway tipped it through Rask's pads, making it a 2-2 contest at 16:15.

After a high-event first frame that featured 36 shots (18 on each side), 32 hits, five penalties and four goals, the second period was scoreless but not bereft of "events." Boston had the only power play of the period, but a total of six minor penalties were whistled in a span of roughly three and a half minutes in the back half of the frame. Each time, the officials opted to take a player from each side, so there was a fair amount of 4-on-4 hockey.
Washington lost Eller to a lower body injury midway through the second, leaving the Caps down a forward and without a critical centerman the rest of the way.
In the third, the Caps failed to convert on a pair of early and nearly consecutive power plays, but they managed to take their first lead of the night just seconds after the expiration of the second of those man advantages.
Carl Hagelin made a nifty bump pass to Orlov just on the Boston side of neutral ice, sending the Washington blueliner into the Bruins' zone on a 2-on-1 with Hathaway riding shotgun. Orlov sold the possibility of the shot to Rask, then issued a perfect feed for Hathaway, who buried a wrist shot from the right circle for a 3-2 Caps lead at 7:04 of the third.
Washington tried to whittle the clock away. It got pucks deep routinely and consistently, but it was rarely able to hang onto them for very long in the Bruins' zone. The B's kept pressing for the equalizer and with just under three minutes left in regulation, they tied it up on a goalmouth scramble, with Taylor Hall jamming it behind Anderson in the midst of a pileup of humanity atop the blue paint.
"There was a pretty good scrum going on there," says Laviolette. "There had to be eight people down in there by the end of it. It pops out and you hack and whack. We're trying to hack and whack and get it out of there or tie it up somehow. It popped to [Hall] and he whacked it."
Monday's game is the 11th straight one-goal playoff game between the Caps and the Bruins, extending an NHL record. The streak dates back to the first round of the 1998 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Neither team has led by more than a goal at any point in the first two games, and the teams traded goals until Hathaway scored consecutive goals for Washington a period and a half apart to give the Caps the lead.
The Bruins scored the next two to tie it late and win it in overtime.
"I think the guys that have been here understood the urgency of this game," says Boston coach Bruce Cassidy. "We had to play better; we did. Obviously getting the win is very important, but for our own selves, we needed to play a better hockey game. I thought we were the better team tonight and were full value for the win."