After a less-than-encouraging start to the 2014-15 season on Thursday, the Washington Capitals rebounded with a resounding 4-0 road win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. Captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the first period to give the Caps an early advantage that they didn’t give up.
Washington started off quickly, like they did on Thursday. Ovechkin opened the scoring at 11:26 of the first period on the power play. Matt Fraser was serving a penalty for Bobby Robins after Robins kneed Matt Niskanen in the back and proceeded to fight Michael Latta. After just eight seconds on the power play, John Carlson fed Ovechkin from just in front of the blue line, and Ovechkin scored from the left face-off circle on one of his patented one-timers.
With 1:21 left in the first, Nicklas Backstrom found Ovechkin in a similar spot, and Ovechkin doubled the Caps’ lead.
In the second period, the Caps (1-0-1) made it 3-0 when Mike Green scored a power play goal of his own 10:34 into the frame. A wide-open Green converted on a cross-ice pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov from the top of the left face-off circle, and it was 3-0. John Carlson made it 4-0 with less than two minutes to play with a slapshot from the high slot.
The Bruins out-shot Washington 29-21 and out-hit the Caps 28-23.
Holtby stopped all 29 shots he faced, earning the 12th shutout of his NHL career. It was also the first win for first-year Washington head coach Barry Trotz, who said, “I was telling the guys, ‘Finally.’ I didn’t want to go, like, 0-82. That would be sort of embarrassing.”
The Caps’ next game is back at Verizon Center on Tuesday at 7:00 against San Jose.
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