The Washington Capitals fell to the Boston Bruins by a score of 3-2 in a shootout at Capital One Arena on Sunday in each teams’ 2021-22 preseason debut. Goaltenders Phoenix Copley, who stopped 12 out of 14 shots through 40 minutes, and Vitek Vanecek (nine out of nine) shared the net.

Capitals’ Lineup vs. Bruins

Conor Sheary-Lars Eller-Garret Pilon
Daniel Sprong-Connor McMichael-Tom Wilson
Joe Snively-Hendrix Lapierre-Brian Pinho
Beck Malenstyn-Riley Sutter-Brett Leason

Scratches: RW Garnet Hathaway, LW Kale Kessy

Martin Fehervary-Justin Schultz
Dmitry Orlov-Martin Has
Trevor van Riemsdyk-Dylan McIlrath

Scratch: LHD Michal Kempny

Copley

Vanecek

First Period

Snively cut to the net, pounced on a rebound off of Lapierre’s shot, and beat goaltender Jeremy Swayman high glove to open the scoring 4:15 in.

From Lil Caps goals to Big Caps goals! pic.twitter.com/JJu9HPyPoK

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 26, 2021

After defenseman Connor Clifton took the puck to the net from the left half-wall and was robbed by Copley and a goal-mouth scramble occurred, left-wing Jake DeBrusk stuffed it through Copley’s arm and tied it with 7:04 left.

The Capitals led 11-6 in shots, 12-5 in hits, 3-1 in takeaways, and failed to convert on two power plays in the first period.

The Bruins led 8-2 in blocked shots, won 65% of the draws, gave away the puck none while the Capitals did so three times, and did not score on their lone power play opportunity of the period.

Second Period

Center Erik Haula tipped in defenseman John Moore’s blast from the point off of a draw in front of Copley to give the Bruins the lead 1:09 into the period.

Troy Grosenick replaced Swayman in the Bruins’ net with 9:49 left.

The Capitals led 22-14 in shots, including 11-8 in the second, 17-13 in hits, 6-1 in takeaways, won 53% of the draws, and failed to score on three power plays in the first two periods.

The Bruins led 13-7 in blocked shots, had no giveaways while the Capitals had six, and did not score on two man advantages through 40 minutes.

Third Period

After Lapierre dashed into the offensive zone dropped a pass to defenseman Martin Fehervary at the circle, Fehervary fed center Garrett Pilon in the slot. Pilon dangled around the stick of Bruins defenseman Tyler Lewington and put one past the blocker of Grosenick 5:28 into the third.

ooooohhh that was a beauty @gpilon41 pic.twitter.com/AECgcL8P9r

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 26, 2021

The Capitals led 31-23 in shots, 21-19 in hits, 6-5 in takeaways, and failed to score on four power plays.

The Bruins led 9-5 in third-period shots, 17-14 in blocked shots, won 51% of the draws, had three giveaways while the Capitals had nine, and did not score on three power plays.

The game went to overtime.

Overtime

The Capitals led 4-0 in overtime shots.

The game would go to a shootout.

Shootout

Sprong and Haula each scored in the first-round.

DeBrusk won it for the Bruins in the third.

Next preseason game: Wednesday vs. New Jersey Devils (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington locally, NHL Network nationally)

By Harrison Brown