Bruins chase Braden Holtby in 7-3 win over Capitals
Dec 23, 2019; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center David Krejci (46) reacts after center Patrice Bergeron (37) scores a goal past Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby (70) during the first period at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
In what was nothing short of a Christmas miracle on TD Garden ice, the Bruins chased Washington goaltender Braden Holtby with four goals on 11 shots and defeated the NHL-best Capitals by a 7-3 score on Monday night.
Jake DeBrusk kicked things off for the Bruins behind a power-play goal scored at the 5:37 mark for his ninth goal of the season, while Brad Marchand ended a 12-game goalless streak with a putaway at 13:29. Anders Bjork, moved to the right wing for this contest, blasted one through Holtby just 27 seconds later for his sixth strike of the season.
And with the Capitals called for two minors on the same sequence, giving the Bruins a full, two-minute 5-on-3 advantage, it was Patrice Bergeron who tipped a puck through Holtby for a 4-0 lead after just 20 minutes of action.
For perspective on the rarity of such leads against the Caps, this was Boston’s first four-goal lead over the Capitals since Oct. 30, 2002, when the Bruins blasted a Washington squad coached by now-B’s head coach Bruce Cassidy.
The Bruins appeared to take a 5-0 lead thanks to an own-goal on Caps relief goalie Ilya Samsonov on a delayed penalty against the Bruins, but the referee blew the play dead (both unreviewable and unexplained). And in what was nothing short of a “puck don’t lie” moment, Charlie Coyle made it 5-0 all the same on a shorthanded breakaway on Samsonov.
where mom hides the christmas cookies:
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) December 24, 2019
Coyle makes it 5-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/V1m0wkJ2E7
The goal was good for the 100th goal of Coyle’s NHL career, and allowed the Bruins to capitalize on what was an undoubtedly foot-off-the-gas period, with just two shots compared to 14 for the Capitals. It was during that 14-shot barrage on Tuukka Rask that the Caps found their first goal of the night thanks to Alex Ovechkin’s 23rd of the year.
Washington scored their second goal of the night at the 15:29 mark of the third period on a Lars Eller goal.
And just for good measure, the Bruins pushed their lead back to four on an empty-net goal from David Krejci with just 3:10 remaining in the third period of action, good for Krejci’s eighth goal of the season. And then it did it once again after a Garnet Hathaway strike, with Patrice Bergeron’s second of the night making it a 7-3 final.
The goaltenders seemed to be the real story of this game, too, as the Bruins chased Holtby and then failed to generate much upon his departure (they had just five shots over the final 40 minutes of action), while Tuukka Rask weathered some storms and stopped 39-of-42 for his 14th victory of the season.
Boston’s only loss of this game came with an upper-body injury that knocked Torey Krug out of action in the second period. Leveled hard by the Caps’ Tom Wilson on a d-zone clear out of the Boston end, the Bruins skated without Krug for almost the entire second period, and ruled him out of a return shortly into the third period of play.
Bruins captain Zdeno Chara missed this contest due to a scheduled jaw procedure from an offseason operation that came with an apparent infection, leading to the return of John Moore to the lineup. The 29-year-old Moore, who saw an increase in his ice-time upon the departure of Krug, logged a season-high 26:40 of time on ice in the win.
The Bruins will now enter the Christmas break before getting back to work with a home-and-home with the Sabres beginning Friday night in Buffalo.
