They took a victory on enemy ice to regain the home-ice advantage in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal, and they did it by finally getting some offensive production.
After managing just two goals while splitting the first two games in Boston, the Bruins scored twice as many in Game 3 on Monday to take a 4-2 win and a 2-1 series lead.
"We found a way to score some goals here, a lot more than we did in the first two games," Bruins coach Claude Julien told NESN's Naoko Funayama in Washington. "I think the emotion was a lot better, actually better for both sides. I think as the series moves forward here, it's going to ramp up. The intensity is ramping up, so it's making it out to be a pretty interesting series right now."
The Bruins got those goals by finally finding the right balance between creating enough traffic in front of the net and not clogging up the shooting lanes themselves.
"We had to make sure we didn't overcrowd the front of the net," Julien said. "We talked about getting guys in front of the net, and that's important, but crowding too many guys in front of the net just means that it can hit more bodies. So we've got to make sure we have good net-front presence, and we've got to have guys in other areas that can give us another option if the shooting lane isn't there."
Three of Boston's goals came directly from that net-front presence. Daniel Paille scored on a rebound in front, following up a Greg Zanon shot with a second-chance effort at the top of the crease. Brian Rolston also scored on a rebound after a scramble in the slot, while Zdeno Chara's game-winner with 1:53 left in regulation came with Dennis Seidenberg providing a screen as Chara blasted a one-timer from the right circle.
"I thought we did a better job throwing pucks there and just getting there with a purpose," Rolston told reporters in Washington. "It's not easy getting opportunities, but our D did a good job getting pucks there. And when you do get those opportunities, we've got to have people there because the easy plays aren't there for us against this team. They're a really good hockey team. They're good in their defensive zone, probably like everybody in the playoffs."
The Bruins weren't always so good in their own zone. They had several costly breakdowns, most notably allowing Brooks Laich to get behind the defense and swoop in all alone on a breakaway to tie the game 3-3 with six minutes left.
Boston also still needs to get its top two lines going. On Monday, the fourth line chipped in with Paille's tally, and the third line scored its third goal in as many games when Rolston scored. Rich Peverley had Boston's first goal, and Patrice Bergeron assisted on Chara's game-winner, but both of those scores came with the team's playing 4-on-4 and third-line center Chris Kelly on the ice.
The top two lines still haven't produced a point in the series when either combination was playing as a unit. Julien even shook up those lines Monday, with Bergeron moving up between Milan Lucic and Peverley and David Krejci skating with Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin, but it did little to improve either line's production.
But the good outweighed the bad on this night. The Bruins finally got to young goalie Braden Holtby, who allowed four goals on 29 shots after stopping 72 of 74 in the first two games. Tim Thomas, meanwhile, overcame a hostile crowd in Washington and strong pressure from the Capitals to make 29 saves for the win.
"It was a great team effort," Chara told reporters in Washington. "Everybody battled hard. It was a very big game for us. We wanted to have a good game and a winning game, and that's what we accomplished. It's just a grind. It's one of those teams that isn't going to go away. They play hard, so we've just got to keep working hard and battling."
The Bruins get a two-day break before Game 4 in D.C. on Thursday, but the work will continue in practice as the team has learned quickly in this series not to take anything for granted against a very pesky Capitals squad.
Have a question for Douglas Flynn? Send it to him via Twitter at @douglasflynn or send it here. He will pick a few questions to answer every week for his mailbag.
