Capitals win on Nicklas Backstrom goal in OT

WASHINGTON -- Nicklas Backstrom scored at 1:36 of overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 4-3 victory against the Boston Bruins at Verizon Center on Wednesday.
"It's always good to get two points," Backstrom said. "[It] wasn't the way we wanted to but at the same time we'll take these two points and move on."

Justin Williams scored twice and Daniel Winnik also scored for the Capitals. Braden Holtby made 31 saves for Washington (15-7-3), which has beaten Boston seven straight times.
WATCH: All Bruins vs. Capitals highlights
Dominic Moore, David Pastrnak and Colin Miller scored for the Bruins (15-10-2). Tuukka Rask made 16 saves.
Williams scored 23 seconds into the game when he tipped Evgeny Kuznetsov's shot past Rask for his third of the season.

Williams scored his second goal at 7:57 to make it 2-0. Kuznetsov's shot was blocked in front but Williams put the rebound behind Rask.
Winnik gave Washington a 3-0 lead at 5:51 of the second period when he finished a 2-on-1 with Jay Beagle for his fourth goal of the season.
Moore made it 3-1 at 16:35 when he tipped Anton Blidh's shot from the top of the circle past Holtby.

Pastrnak scored his 16th of the season with 1:00 remaining in the second to make it 3-2. He skated through the defense and scored on the backhand.
"I didn't think we played it right but we stuck in there and we worked our way back into it, so I think it was a real good effort by our hockey club tonight," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Probably at the end you think you deserve better, but against a team like that you take the point and you move on because we've got a game [Thursday] night."
Miller tied the game 3-3 on the power play at 8:19 of the third period.

Goal of the game

Williams scored his first goal in nine games, a timely tip of Kuznetsov's shot that seemed to float around Rask.

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Save of the game

Rask made three impressive saves in the same first-period sequence, first stopping Backstrom with his left pad, then T.J. Oshie and John Carlson in succession with his right pad.

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Highlight of the game

Pastrnak recovered from nearly tripping over Kuznetsov to get behind the Capitals defense and score on a breakaway.

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Unsung performance of the game

The Capitals played with five defensemen after Matt Niskanen left with 3:12 remaining in the first period after he was checked into the boards by Boston's Patrice Bergeron. Karl Alzner, who played 24:04, second most among Capitals defensemen, helped kill off two of three penalties and blocked seven shots. "Credit to our 'D'," Washington coach Barry Trotz said. "They were under siege for two periods, [five defensemen], and they battled real hard."

They said it

"I think every time, when you let teams back from a 3-0 lead, it's not good enough. We want to be a better team. We want to play tight. We want to shut teams down. I thought they really outplayed us [in the] second and third period and really, we were lucky to get two points, to be honest."-- Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom
"We sat back. A 3-0 lead isn't like it was 10 years ago. You still have to play the same way that got you the lead. We sat back, and when you sit back five percent, 10 percent, teams feel that and they put the pedal down." --Capitals forward Justin Williams
"Just that we just had to stick with it. It was 2-0 at the time and I said 'If we can get the next goal [we're] right back into it'. But they scored again. It was 3-0 but we didn't get that next goal, we got the following two. Got us right back in the game and we felt good about our game after the second period and came out in the third feeling that we were very capable of getting another one."Bruins coach Claude Julien on what the message was after the first period

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Need to know

Oshie returned for the Capitals after missing seven games with an upper-body injury. ... Niskanen will be re-evaluated Thursday and Trotz said the Capitals may recall a defenseman from Hershey of the American Hockey League.

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What's next

Bruins: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ALT, NESN, NHL.TV)
Capitals: At the Buffalo Sabres on Friday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-DC, MSG-B, NHL.TV)