Caps Slip Past B's in Round Robin Finale

Tom Wilson's third-period goal stood up as the game-winner on Sunday afternoon as the Caps salvaged the last three of their round-robin games, nipping the Boston Bruins by a 2-1 count in Toronto.

The Caps saved their best overall performance in the round robin for Sunday's finale as they kept the Bruins - the league's top team during the regular season - at bay for most of the afternoon.

"We definitely made some steps in the right direction," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "Certainly there is room to improve, that's for sure. It was a better response, and I liked that. The type of game was one that I was interested in playing, and I'm glad it played out like it did where we had to protect a lead and play at the end of the game with the lead, and make some smart decisions with the puck. Other than that, we've been kind of chasing games, so this was a good thing for us to go through."

Sunday's win also sets the Caps' playoff foe for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this week. Washington will open against the New York Islanders while the Bruins will take on the Carolina Hurricanes in opening round action.

"The first couple of games was kind of hard because of the rhythm, the feel of the ice, the feel of the speed of the game, it was kind of hard - not hard, but we had to adjust," says Caps captain Alex Ovechkin. "I think today's game was pretty similar to what we're going to see in the next rounds. Obviously, we're going to play against the Islanders, and we know their system well. It's going to be tight games and it's going to be tough games. It's not going to be easy."

Seconds after the Caps and Bruins finished playing a couple of minutes worth of 4-vs-4 hockey to start the third period, Wilson won a footrace with a pair of Bruins defenders, getting to a slow rolling puck that had been cleared from Washington ice. The right-handed Wilson got to the puck as it reached the bottom of the left circle, quickly went from backhand to forehand and neatly tucked it off the far post and in, over Rask's glove hand.

Wilson's goal, at 2:49 of the third, gave the Caps a 2-0 lead at that juncture.

In the final seconds of the first frame, T.J. Oshie staked Washington to a 1-0 advantage. After Rask sticked aside an intended feed to Oshie from Nicklas Backstrom, Oshie pulled the puck off the stick of Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara and slipped it in on the short side at 19:44 of the first, giving Washington its first lead in any of the three round-robin games.

Starved for offense after managing just one goal on 17 shots on net in Thursday's 3-1 loss to Philadelphia, the Caps mustered only two shots on net in the first period against Boston. Oshie's shot was the first for Washington in more than 10 minutes, but it went in.

Reirden shook up his top six forwards the rest of the way, and the Caps generated more in the way of time in the attack zone, pucks to the net and scoring chances over the remainder of the afternoon. But they were also solid defensively, limiting the Bruins to just one goal, a Jake Debrusk tally that came just after the midpoint of the third period to spoil Braden Holtby's bid for a whitewash.

"I think we're building on our game, we're feeling good about it, we've got to keep building and it's a fun time of year," says Wilson. "This is why we play all season, and hopefully the team is ready to go and it'll be great."

Holtby was strong in all three round-robin games, and he stopped 30 of 31 shots against Boston on Sunday. He made his best stops on Charlie McAvoy from the slot early in the second period and on David Pastrnak just after the midpoint of the third. The Bruins' vaunted top trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak accounted for 21 of Boston's 68 shot attempts and 11 of its 31 shots on net on the afternoon, but that trio was kept off the scoresheet.

Boston won the 2019-20 Presidents' Trophy as the league's best regular season team, but will head into the playoffs as the fourth overall seed in the Eastern Conference. The B's never had a scoreboard lead at any point in the round robin, losing all three of their games.

"We pushed back certainly, stayed in the game," says Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "We clearly generated more offense tonight than we have in other games more consistently. We didn't finish well, but [we were] around the net a lot at 5-on-5. Our power play is still a work in progress.

"I thought we were better on both sides of the puck. We just again didn't win."