BOSTON — Now, that’s how you end a losing streak.
An impressive four-goal first period helped lift the Bruins over the Capitals on Monday, as Boston defeated Washington 7-3 at TD Garden. The win snapped the B’s three-game skid as they gear up for a three-day layoff.
Jake DeBrusk, Brad Marchand, Anders Bjork, Patrice Bergeron (twice), Charlie Coyle and David Krejci all scored for the Bruins. Alex Ovechkin, Lars Eller and Garnet Hathaway scored for the Caps.
Tuukka Rask made an impressive 39 saves, while Brayden Holtby made seven saves on 11 shots before being pulled. Ilya Samsonov stopped three.
The Bruins moved to 22-7-9 with the win while the Capitals fell to 26-7-5.
Here’s how it all went down:
JUST … WOW
What a busy first period.
The B’s landed on the power play 90 seconds into the contest after Nick Jensen was called for high-sticking. But the Caps’ stingy penalty kill (which was ranked second-best in the NHL entering Monday’s game) briefly kept Boston at bay.
Boston wound up back on the man-advantage four minutes later, and DeBrusk made Washington pay. The winger lit the lamp for the ninth time this season nine seconds in to make it 1-0 Bruins. (Check out that celly, too.)
CAPITAL(IZING) ?ON?THE ?POWER PLAY ?@NHLBruins | @JDebrusk pic.twitter.com/iX5vjEDabx
— NESN (@NESN) December 24, 2019
Then it was the Caps’ turn to go on the power play after Charlie McAvoy was called for tripping midway through the first, but Rask held firm.
Marchand extended the Bruins’ lead to two with 6:31 on the clock with his 19th goal of the season.
Just 27 seconds later, Bjork netted his sixth of the season to make it 3-0 Bruins after just 14 minutes.
& then we're going back-to-back! pic.twitter.com/gtIUG6SHzg
— NESN (@NESN) December 24, 2019
The period didn’t end without Boston going on one more power play after Evgeny Kuznetsov was called for slashing and Jakub Vrana was called for tripping. The 5-on-3 situation allowed Bergeron to score goal No. 4 of the period, his 14th of the season.
.@pastrnak96 ➡️ Bergy ?#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/Tqhn4Yl2MA
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 24, 2019
And just like that, Boston had itself a hefty four-goal lead.
MORE BOSTON MAGIC
After a dismal first period, the Capitals swapped goalies before the start of the second period. So out went Holtby and in came Samsonov.
Torey Krug exited the game after taking a hit from Tom Wilson and crashing into the boards by Washington’s bench. He did not return to the game.
The B’s wound up on back-to-back penalty kills to start the second, with DeBrusk called for slashing two minutes in and Krejci was called for tripping nearly six minutes in. But it didn’t matter to Coyle.
The Weymouth, Mass. native notched his 100th NHL goal nearly seven minutes in the period on an impressive shorthanded opportunity, extending the B’s lead to five.
Career goal No. 100 is a beaut.@CharlieCoyle_3 | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/IeSJ2CCoId
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 24, 2019
The Caps got one back with 5:25 on the clock on Ovechkin’s 23rd goal of the season, trimming Boston’s lead to four.
ONE! @ovi8 pic.twitter.com/8HiAgTRrKd
— Washington ☃️ Capitals (@Capitals) December 24, 2019
The B’s went 0-for-1 on the power play in the second. The Caps outshot the Bruins 25-13 through two periods, despite their four-goal deficit. (Boston had just two shots on net the entire period.)
LOSING STREAK SNAPPED
The Black and Gold sealed the deal in the third.
The period remained largely uneventful. David Pastrnak got into a scrap with Wilson in front of the Caps’ bench with 6:34 on the clock. Pastrnak went to the box for two minutes while Wilson was handed a game misconduct and headed down the tunnel.
We like to call this…"Old Time Hockey" pic.twitter.com/O2jvwHtuBP
— NESN (@NESN) December 24, 2019
Washington cut Boston’s lead to three with 4:31 to play on Eller’s eighth goal of the season. But Boston pushed right back with an empty-netter potted by Krejci.
Hathaway made it a three-goal game once again less than a minute later, but Bergeron upped the Bruins’ lead to four with 28 seconds on the clock with another empty-net goal.
That’s all she wrote from TD Garden, as Boston wins its first game since Dec. 14.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will have a bit of a break before returning to game action Friday against the Buffalo Sabres. Puck drop at KeBank Center is slated for 7 p.m. ET.
