Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced and ultimately did more than enough to help Boston to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals in Game 2 of the first-round playoff series.
Rask played extremely well in the opening minutes, including one of his best stops on the night coming on a Nic Dowd breakaway bid. Despite Washington tallying a pair of first-period goals, Rask continued to stand tall all the way into the third when he made a few timely saves on the Bruins penalty kill.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy thought Rask fared well in Game 2.
“Well, early on he was under siege so he made a number of great saves,” Cassidy said on a postgame video conference. “The couple of goals were, I mean the high tip (he had) no chance at all, the 2-on-1 we didn’t defend it well enough.”
Rask did give up a squeaky goal he’d probably like to have back in the first period which allowed the Capitals to tie the game 2-all.
“The other one, I don’t know how it went in. It rattled around, unfortunately there’s been a few of those in each of the first two games. So obviously we’d like to see him tighten up on those ones, but at the end of the day, certainly played well and gave us a chance to win,” Cassidy said. “The game was always close, you don’t want it to get away from you. I thought both goalies were good. I thought their guy was excellent, too, but we were one better.”
Washington’s Craig Anderson, who made an emergency appearance Saturday before stealing the Capitals a Game 1 win, made 44 saves on 48 shots Monday night.
The Bruins and Capitals, tied at 1-1 in the best-of-seven series, will travel to Boston for Game 3 on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
