Marco Sturm’s Bruins grind out Opening Night win vs. Capitals

Bruins head coach Marco Sturm began his first morning skate as the B's head coach talking about the Capitals' home rink in D.C., and even went as far as to call Capital One Arena a "powerhouse" for the Capitals.

Sturm, whose playing career included a brief stop in Washington, was speaking from both experience and history. It was just a year ago that the Caps grabbed points in all but nine of their 41 home dates last season.

But on Wednesday night, Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman cut off the arena's power supply entirely, as he dazzled and stymied the Capitals to the tune of a 34-save victory in a 3-1 final over the Capitals.

It was the kind of night that required Swayman to get better as the night went along, and he did exactly that. After he held serve with a perfect 8-for-8 showing, Swayman stood on his head in a 17-for-17 second frame.

And it was that performance that allowed the Bruins to not only stay in it, but take the lead at the 12:07 mark of the second period.

But even when the Caps tied things up in the third period on a Tom Wilson top-shelf snipe, the Bruins made sure to reward Swayman for what he had done to that point. On the power play just 15 seconds after Wilson tied things up, Pastrnak & Co. came through with their prettiest goal of the night after he received a slick dish from Pavel Zacha and fed Elias Lindholm for a beautiful net-front putaway on the Caps' Logan Thompson.

That goal would hold as the game-winning strike for Boston, though the Bruins made sure to add an insurance marker thanks to Morgan Geekie's empty-net goal to give the Bruins a two-goal lead and ultimately a two-goal victory.

For Pastrnak, the second-period tally marked the second time in his career that he had scored the Black and Gold's first goal of the season. The strike also moved Pastrnak up the franchise leaderboard in a different category, too, as it moved him into sole possession of the third-most Opening Night points in franchise history, with 15. Pastrnak entered this season-opening contest tied with David Krejci at 14 points, and without Johnny Bucyk (17) and Ray Bourque (30) having posted more points in season-opening games for Boston.

Pastrnak would add a second point and third and push that figure up to 17 (tying Bucyk) by the night's end with the primary helper on that Lindholm power-play strike and Geekie's empty-net dagger.

The Bruins won't have to wait long to get back on the ice, either, as the club will head home for a Thursday night showdown with the Blackhawks at TD Garden. That game will (obviously) be the second leg of a back-to-back for Boston, and comes following Chicago's loss to the Panthers on Tuesday.