Bruins Live Blog: Capitals Fend Off Late B’s Attack, Win Afternoon Tilt 4-3

by abournenesn

Mar 10, 2012

Bruins Live Blog: Capitals Fend Off Late B's Attack, Win Afternoon Tilt 4-3Final, Caps 4-3: The Bruins gave the Garden crowd plenty to cheer about in the final minute of action but they showed up too little, too late and walk away 4-3 losers. More to come after locker room availability.

Third Period, 18:41, Caps 4-3: Thomas pulled and the B's get three great chances in front.

Third Period, 18:18, Caps 4-3:
The B's nearly grab a power play with under two to go but a Caps clearing was tipped before going out of play. Crowd really wanted that one.

Third Period, 17:21, Caps 4-3:
Lucic almost cleans up another loose puck in front after a shot from the point but Vokoun pounces on it just in time. The Garden was vibrating at the time still from Boychuk's tally; if Looch buried that one this place would have caved in.

Third Period, 17:00, Caps 4-3:
Talk about Johnny on the spot. Boyhuck flips in a rebound over Vokoun to bring the B's within one.

Third Period, 15:54, Caps 4-2:
Things aren't looking up for the Black and Gold with just over four minutes to go. They're outshooting the Caps this frame 8-2 and are controlling the flow but Vokoun is turning away any decent chance the B's get.

Third Period, 12:30, Caps 4-2:
The Bruins are dominating the frame but can't seem to get the open or clean shot off.

Third Period, 6:33, Caps 4-2:
Seidenberg rings one off the near post with a wrister from the point. Good traffic in front, too.

Third Period, 4:00, Caps 4-2:
Pretty slow start to the final frame for both teams but Campbell and Thornton gave the crowd a stir with a chance in Vokoun's slot.

Third Period, 2:00, Caps 4-2:
I'd say you can hear crickets chirping here at the Garden in the third period but even they are quiet.

Second Intermission, Caps 4-2: The B's have their work cut out for them heading into the final frame, as all momentum has swung to the visitors bench.

Second Period, 19:31, Caps 4-2
: Tim Thomas has allowed at least four goals in his last four starts — a pretty fair sign that the B's could use Turco's help next week.

Second Period, 17:31, Caps 4-2
: The Caps strike again, this time with a pretty goal from Brooks Laich, who redeflects a Dennis Wideman (booooo!) shot/pass on the power play.

That's Laich's 13th of the year with old pal D-Wide getting the helper (his 32nd of the year). Ovi also got the assist, his 24th of the season.

Wouldn't mind seeing MacDermid get the mitts wet in front of the home crowd for a little energy booster but there's not many dance partners on the Caps bench.

Second Period, 15:34, Caps 3-2
: Zanon just unloaded on Perreault but the defenseman's clobber-job was too dirty for the refs' taking as he gets sent off for roughing. Replay clearly shows a clean hit, not sure what the stripes saw there.

Second Period, 14:23, Caps 3-2
: Boychuk just took a Troy Brouwer shot off the leg but he appears to be OK. B's kill off the second Caps PP unscathed.

Second Period, 12:30, Caps 3-2
: Krejci is going off for unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, giving the Caps their second PP of the frame.

Second Period, 11:22, Caps 3-2
: The B's got sloppy in their zone and Jay Beagle and Caps capitalized. Beagle banged in a one-timer from the slot after McQuaid bumped into a teammate and fell into the corner.

It was Semin who found Beagle all alone in front from the corner.

Second Period, 10:00, Tied 2-2
: A little scare there for Bruins fans as everyone here at Causeway St. — Tim Thomas included — just watched the puck trickle past the B's keeper and crawl along the goal line. Luckily for the home team, it was knocked away before any Caps player could get near.

Second Period, 8:59, Tied 2-2
: Zanon grabs onto Hendricks and gets whistled for a hold, giving the Caps their first man-up of the afternoon.

Second Period,4:58, Tied 2-2
: Marchand slips it through Vokoun to knot things up at two apiece. He jumped on a loose puck at the Caps blue line and took it in, down the left side, faking a shot and sliding it through Vokoun's legs.

Second Period, 3:10, Caps 2-1
: Kelly just took a hard Seidenberg slapper from pretty close range. Looks like he's doing OK on the B's bench though.

Second Period, 0:10, Caps 2-1
: Caron is back out there with Bergeron and Marchand. Also, Pouliot is a "lower body injury." Specifically speaking.

First intermission, Caps 2-1: Here's a nice clip of that Chara glass-shattering hit on Johansson.

The B's finish strong, cutting the Caps lead in half. They were a little two-faced in the opening frame, coming out very slow at first but picking things up toward the end. Despite being unable to take advantage of the game's first two power play opps, the B's head into the locker room with momentum.

Lucic's goal was his 23rd of the year. Earlier this season he became the first NHL player with at least 100 PIMs to get his 20th goal.

B's TOI leaders through one: Seidenberg 8:27, Chara 7:38, Seguin 7:37.

First Period, 19:55, Caps 2-1: Lucic buries one of the faceoff from the left side.

The winger swooped into the faceoff scrum and surprised Vokoun. Bergeron was able to tie up his draw partner and Looch beat everyone else to it before firing a no-look snipe toward the net.

First Period, 18:00, Caps 2-0
: Krejci finds a streaking Seguin at the backdoor, but Vokoun gets a pad on it to keep the B's shut out.

First Period, 16:48, Caps 2-0
: Chara gets aggressive on the man up and takes things into the Caps corner to cough up a turnover. Marchand's high glove-side shot gets denied by Vokoun but the B's are looking a lot better on offense.

First Period, 16:03, Caps 2-0
: B's are going to get another crack at a power play as old pal Roman Hamrlik gets sent off for a trip.

First Period, 13:20, Caps 2-0
: Seidenberg sends a nice bank shot from the point and the B's nearly capitalize with the Krejci rebound attempt. Shortly after the whistle, Alzner gives Krejci a nice crosscheck to the spine which catches the eye of Lucic who gives Alzner some glove love. Both get sent off so we'll go a little 4-on-4.

First Period, 12:20, Caps 2-0
: Rolston manning the point on the B's power play and lets one rip with Lucic screening in front. Vokoun got a stick on it and sent it into the net.

First Period, 11:19,Caps 2-0
: The B's are on the first power play of the afternoon thanks to a Perreault hooking penalty.

First Period, 11:19,Caps 2-0
: Karl Alzner gets the helper on Semin's goal. Cue Billy Madison: "Karl! Good to see YOU!"

First Period, 9:45,Caps 2-0
: Chara just thumped Johansson into — and nearly through — the glass by the penalty box. It looks like he jarred something loose down there and a fan appears to be being attended to. Everyone looks OK from my angle — although I can't see Johansson's insides.

First Period, 9:49,Caps 2-0
: Time for the B's to wake up — those goals were just 25 seconds apart.

First Period, 8:15,Caps 2-0
: And just like that, the B's are down 2-0. Hendricks with a great individual effort to bang not one but two rebounds while being swarmed. The scrapper managed to sneak the second attempt through TT.

First Period, 7:50,Caps 1-0
: Semin cleans up a big rebound along the right side of the net to give the Caps a 1-0 lead. Washington is leading in shots dept., too, 10-3.

First Period, 5:22, tie 0-0
: Lucic with a decent chance in front on a juicy rebound from a Seidenberg shot from the point. Plenty of traffic in front of Vokoun early.

First Period, 4:00, tie 0-0
: Don't adjust your TV sets, folks — yes, that is Mottau playing the wing with Thornton and Campbell.

First Period, 1:10, tie 0-0
: Johansson and Ovechkin off to a nice start so far. To no one's surprise, its the trigger-happy Ovi to get the first shot of the contest.

12:55 p.m.:
Here's more from Tuukka:

On if he’ll be back when playoffs start:
"You hope so right? You just have to go by the week, by the day with these injuries. Peter [Chiarelli] and the doctors talked, probably closer to six weeks than four. That would be right around the playoff time and I think we’re going to shoot for that and hopefully it’s better by that time."

On if it was tough knowing he’d be out this long:
"Yeah you know, there’s nothing you can do about it. It is tough, and it is what it is but you just have to stay positive and let it heal. You can’t be thinking about that too much, but it’s obviously tough and you feel for Timmy, because we were going to share a lot of games in this month I bet and get a lot of workload off each other’s shoulders too, but things happens in hockey and it happened to me this time and hopefully we can get ready for the playoffs."

On if he can do anything to help the healing process:
"I can’t, you know it’s your ab and it’s your groin – you’re whole body kind of goes through that area there. So there’s really nothing I can do cardio wise, but right now just mental exercises and I jumped in the hot tub today – that’s a nice relaxing spa day."

12:43 p.m.:
Claude on Peverley and Horton this morning:

"With Peverley, it's been clear. It's been 4-6 weeks and it remains the same. With Horton, it's still the same situation as before. He's still not skating and he's working out to a certain extent, but there's still some issues that prevent him from taking the next step."

12:35 p.m.: The Caps have just 24 fights this season, with Matt Hendricks accounting for 11 of them. He and Adam McQuaid danced earlier this season (about a month ago, actually), as seen below.

12:28 p.m.:
TD Garden has Bruce Springsteen blasting as we speak. The Boss will be here live on Monday, 3/26, as if I had to remind anyone that.

12:23 p.m.: More from Rask, via the Bruins Twitter account:

Rask said he's being patient. "Closer to 6 weeks…hopefully better by that time." Not feeling pain in normal situations, but no exercise.

Rask said walking's better and he's eyeing the playoffs. "This week we just iced…we'll talk abt the plan moving forward." Rest prescribed.

12:20 p.m.: Here are this afternoon's projected lines, with Paille and Ference sitting this one out.

Projected Bruins lines

Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Tyler Seguin
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jordan Caron
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Brian Rolston
Lane MacDermid-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Crovo
Mike Mottau-Adam McQuaid

Goalies
Tim Thomas
Marty Turco

Scratches: Daniel Paille (upper body), Andrew Ference (lower body), Nathan Horton (concussion), Rich Peverley (knee), Tuukka Rask (groin), Greg Zanon

Projected Capitals lines

Forwards
Marcus Johansson-Brooks Laich-Alex Ovechkin
Jason Chimera-Mathieu Perreault-Alexander Semin
Matt Hendricks-Jay Beagle-Troy Brouwer
Keith Aucoin-Jeff Halpern-Joel Ward

Defense
Karl Alzner-John Carlson
Jeff Schultz-Dennis Wideman
Dmitry Orlov-Romas Hamrlik
 
Goalies
Tomas Vokoun
Michael Neuvirth
 
Scratches: Mike Green (suspension), John Erskine, Mike Knuble

12:09 p.m.:
Here's the latest from Rask, thanks to John Bishop of Bruins.com:

"I heard snapping in my ab…happy I didn't have to go through surgery… Knew right away it was…serious."

12:06 p.m.: Speaking of knowledge, here's today's Four's Trivia Question of the Day:

Who was the last Bruins forward to lead the NHL in plus-mins (and when?!). Leave your answer here and get a shot at $50 to the Four's.

11:58 a.m.: I'd like to spit some knowledge out for you while we wait to get the lineups/scratches from D-Flynn.

Krejci, Lucic and Seguin all have five-game point streaks heaading into this one. Seguin and Krejci each have seven points over that span while Lucic has six.

In 12 afternoon tilts this season the B's are just 4-6-2. After today's battle, they'll have four more from here on out. If they rock their third uniforms today — which is likely — they'll be shooting for their fifth win of the year in the alternate threads. They're 4-3-2 overall without the spoked-B this year.

11:56 a.m.: For those who missed Milan Lucic on NESN Daily last night (or this morning), check out a clip by clicking here.

11:53 a.m.: Greetings from the still-sleepy TD Garden. Doug Flynn is downstairs hearing from Claude Julien so we'll get the lineups out in a few moments.

There's a slim chance today could be Turco Time. Although just a couple of practices under his belt, if Marty is ready to go (in the eyes of the coaching staff, that is), then we could see him get his first B's start to give Tim Thomas a rest. The Bruins travel to Pittsburgh after this one for a big battle with the Pens on Sunday, so if MT is ready, TT can get an extra day.

If Thomas does play today and again tomorrow, we could see Turco take one or both Florida games to give the Tank about a week's rest. Not a bad little vaca, eh? We'll see.

8 a.m.:
The Bruins will have their hands full on Saturday as they welcome the desperate Capitals to the TD Garden for a 1 p.m. tilt.

The Caps ended a three-game losing skid in their last game, topping Tampa Bay 3-2 in overtime thanks to Alex Ovechkin's game-winner. Washington is currently in the midst of a battle for playoff contention as they head down the final stretch with 72 points.

The Black and Gold, meanwhile are as hot as they've been for a long, long time. Boston was unable to string together back-to-back wins in the entire month of February (a Leap Year February, at that!). With Thursday night's win over the Sabres, the B's notched their first "winning streak" since early January.

Stick around to see if the B's can make it three.

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