Pastrnak's 3 points lift Bruins past Capitals in Sturm's coaching debut

WASHINGTON -- David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists, and Marco Sturm won his NHL coaching debut for the Boston Bruins with a 3-1 season-opening victory against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.

Sturm, the first Germany-born head coach in NHL history, was hired on June 5.

“It feels great. I’m exhausted,” Sturm said. “It’s the moment I was waiting for and to grab a win on the road at a tough place like here, it’s even better. And on top of it, for the most part, they played exactly what we worked on, they played exactly how I wanted them to play.”

Elias Lindholm scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and had an assist, and Morgan Geekie also had a goal and an assist for the Bruins. Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves.

“Defensively we played a really good game,” Pastrnak said. “Any breakdowns, ‘Sway’ was there. It was unbelievable today. Penalty killers were outstanding. Great away win.”

Tom Wilson scored for the Capitals, who were also playing their season opener. Logan Thompson made 19 saves.

Thompson stopped Viktor Arvidsson on a breakaway at 6:32 of the second period to keep the game scoreless.

Pastrnak then gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 12:07 when he scored through a screen in front on a wrist shot from the point.

“I saw [Lindholm] net front, so anytime you have a guy net front like that and you have a line to shoot…,” Pastrnak said. “Honestly, I was just shooting to his stick, or for him to tip it, and it went it in. Most credit to him for being net front and creating that screen for me.”

Wilson tied it 1-1 at 7:03 of the third period after he received a pass from Jakob Chychrun and beat Swayman top corner from the slot.

“Early in the game we tried to get too cute coming through the neutral zone and you saw it was turned into some really poor puck play, turnover chances against on a couple of those,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “So, I thought early in the game it was [an issue] and then it got better after that.”

Lindholm scored 38 seconds later on the power play to put the Bruins back ahead 2-1 at 7:41 with a backhand shot off a pass from Pastrnak on the rush.

Swayman made a pair of saves with Thompson pulled for the extra skater before Geekie scored into an empty net at 19:02 for the 3-1 final.

“I thought we play a solid game,” Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said. “We have lots of chances, but obviously we didn’t score on our chances on the [power play] and at the end we still have a chance to tie it.”

The Bruins went 1-for-2 on the power play; the Capitals were 0-for-5.

“That’s something we need to build on right away and take pride in,” Swayman said of the penalty kill. “I think we did a great job just sticking to our routs, making great reads, blocking shots when needed. That’s something you really want to see early on.”

NOTES: The Bruins are 11-3-0 in their past 14 season openers. … Pastrnak (nine goals, eight assists for 17 points) passed David Krejci (14 points) for the third-most points in season-opening games in Bruins’ history. The only players with more are Ray Bourque (30) and Johnny Bucyk (17). … Washington has lost its past four season-openers. … The Capitals wore “26 POPS” stickers on their helmets in honor of forward Nic Dowd’s father, Alan, who passed away last week.