Rask and Bruins Blank Caps, 1-0

Nothing lasts forever, and none of us should need a reminder of that. But we all got one on Sunday afternoon when the Boston Bruins eked out a 1-0 win over the Capitals in Washington.

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask made 24 saves - 11 of them in the third period - to earn the 253rd win of his NHL career, a Boston franchise record and to put an end to nearly five years worth of Caps domination over the Bruins. Sunday's win was Boston's first over the Caps since March 29, 2014, ending a 14-game Washington winning streak, the longest of its kind in the league before it was snapped on Sunday.
"I thought our team defense was excellent," says Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "We checked well, got pucks back. Through the first two periods, that led to a lot of offensive zone play, which is a lot more enjoyable. In the third, they had a push - we figured they would. But Tuk was there for us and we responded well to it, did enough to win."
Only two of Rask's career victories have come against the Capitals; he is 2-11-5 against them lifetime. But both of those wins have come via the shutout route. Rask also whitewashed the Caps on March 6, 2014 in Boston.
Washington got into some early penalty trouble, going shorthanded twice in short succession in the first when Dmitrij Jaskin took a hooking minor in the offensive zone and Evgeny Kuznetsov went off for slashing just seven seconds after the Caps killed off the Jaskin call. Jaskin was benched for the remainder of the first period while Kuznetsov was deployed only on a Washington power play midway through the first before also sitting out the remainder of the frame.

"I think as you get past the All-Star break," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, "when you start making a push toward the playoffs, that's areas we have to get better in, that's one of them.
"We have taken far too many minor penalties with our sticks. It's been discussed, and that's the best thing for our team. We have to be more disciplined if we're going to have success moving forward from here, and I thought the last 30 games is a good time to implement that."
The second of those Boston power plays was a shooting gallery for the Bruins, who had the puck in Washington ice for virtually the entire two minutes, teeing up eight shot attempts and getting half of them on net.
Caps goalie Braden Holtby had the answer for everything Boston sent in his direction, and he was the only reason Washington was close enough to put forth a late push in the third.
Over the first 40 minutes, the Caps had one excellent chance, an Alex Ovechkin semi-breakaway just past the midpoint of the first. Rask made the stop on that shot. A couple of other shot tries glanced off bodies and/or sticks and rolled harmlessly off the post, and that was as good as it got for Washington in the offensive zone in the game's first 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Bruins gave Rask all the support he would need just after the midpoint of the second. From the left point area, David Pastrnak fed Torey Krug at the right dot. Krug quickly pushed it across to David Krejci at the left dot, and Krejci's one-timer beat Holtby to make it a 1-0 game at 10:43 of the second.
Holtby had to make 29 of his 37 saves in the first two periods. He has three career losses against the Bruins (16-3-0), and two of those losses he made at least 37 saves and didn't get any offensive support.
A few minutes into the third, the Caps finally began putting some heat on Rask and the Bruins in their end. But the Boston defense bent and did not break. Bruin defenders took away the middle of the ice for the most part, and they were adept at getting sticks and bodies into shooting and passing lanes, and forcing the Caps to either make extra passes or shoot from undesirable areas.
On Washington's only superb look from the slot in the third, Rask snared Travis Boyd's shot with his glove hand.
"I reached back to catch that," recounts Boyd, "and the goalie was sliding and I was moving to the left, trying to go back up high to the far side. Sometimes you've got to tip your cap. The goalie made a good save."

The Caps put a lot of pressure on Boston around the Bruins net in the third, but couldn't get any of their second chance opportunities to go in.
The Caps had a late third-period power play, but 36 seconds into that man advantage, T.J Oshie was sent off for hooking Zdeno Chara. Shortly after exiting the box, Oshie got behind the Bruins defense and was on the verge of pulling the trigger when Chara broke up the play from behind with his massive stick.
Ultimately, it was a case of too little too late for the Caps, who suffered their second shutout setback on Capital One ice in a span of four home games, and Boston finally ended the Caps' 14-game winning streak against the B's. It was just a matter of time.
"Everyone talked about that last time, too," says Oshie of the streak. "If you would have asked me if they beat us in the last couple of years, I probably would have said, 'Yeah.' So I had no idea. They always give us a good game it feels like.
"Tonight, they were the better team. We've got to come out of the gates a little hotter."