Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Tuesday night at TD Garden in Boston.  The Capitals record improves to 29-7-3.  The Boston Bruins record drops to 20-14-4.  The win snapped the Capitals mini two-game losing streak.

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Starting lines for the Capitals:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Laich-Sill-Galiev

Defensive Pairs:
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Schmidt
Ness-Chorney

John Carlson missed his fifth straight game since sustaining a lower body injury against Montreal on December 26th. Brooks Orpik missed his 26th straight game since sustaining a lower body injury in Detroit on November 10th. Jay Beagle missed his third straight game due to an injury to his hand he sustained in the game against the Buffalo Sabres on December 30th. Ryan Stanton and Michael Latta were the healthy scratches for this game. The goalie match-up for tonight’s game, provided by @CapsGoalies

QUICK TAKES
The Capitals started strong in this one. Clean passes, strong play from all four lines, excellent 5-on-5 play and a tally by Andre Burakovsky got the Capitals out to an early lead in the first period. Evgeny Kuznetsov had another multi-point game, and seemed to be in one of his patented “Kuznetov zones” tonight, scoring one and assisting on another.  Marcus Johansson and Andre Burakovsky would score again, raising hope that more productive times will continue for those two. The Capitals out-shot the Bruins 29-27 for the game. The NHL game summary can be found here:  The individual player stats for the game can be found here:  The game’s face-off stats can be found here:

Karl Alzner was called for interference just 1:36 into the opening period, giving the leagues best power play a very early man-advantage. The Capitals’ penalty-kill unit was up to the early challenge, limiting the Bruins to just one shot on goal, with no resulting damages. Jason Chimera was called for roughing at 5:56, after coming to the aid of Tom Wilson, who sustained a nasty hit by Zach Rinaldo.

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The Capitals were able to weather the storm once again.  Boston’s Patrice Bergeron was called for interference at 9:13 of the opening frame, giving the Capitals their first power play of the night, but Washington failed to capitalize on the man-advantage.  Andre Burakovsky got the Caps on the board first, on the end of a sweet pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov at 15:01.  

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The first period would end with the Capitals leading 1-0.  The Caps led in shots on goal, 10-7. Bruins had just four SOG at even strength. Caps had nine (and none on the PP).

A brisk start to the second period by both teams. Quick end-to-end action saw an early advantage in offensive zone time for Washington in the first five minutes, spearheaded by the Caps 4th line. The Bruins Joonas Kemppainen was called  for hooking at 6:52 of the middle frame, giving the Caps their second power play of the game. Unfortunately T.J. Oshie would be called for interference, which yielded 4-on-4 play for 1:12 at the 7:40 mark of the middle frame. The Bruins would be unable to get a shot on goal during their abbreviated power play at the end of the 4-on-4 play. The Capitals would go back on the power play following a delay of game penalty on the Bruins Zdeno Chara at the 11:36 mark of the middle period.  Evgeny Kuznetsov would strtetch the Caps lead to 2-0 at the 12:40 mark of the second period on a power play goal created all on his own.

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However, the Bruins would strike-back quickly at the 15:26 mark, on a goal by Loui Eriksson.

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The second period would end with the Capitals holding on to a 2-1 lead.  The Capitals led in shots on goal, 23-14.

The third period opened with quick-paced end-to-end action for the first five minutes. The middle part of the period saw the Capitals falling back into more of a defensive mode, but the Caps did a good job in their own defensive zone, limiting shots by the Bruins.  Marcus Johansson would stretch the Capitals lead to 3-1 at 10:41 of the third period

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However, the Bruins would once again strike back quickly on a power play goal by Patrice Bergeron, 71 seconds after Marcus Johansson’s goal, closing the gap to 3-2.

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The Caps would lock it down from there on out, sealing the 3-2 win.