Brad Marchand OT goal wins Game 2 for Bruins

The Bruins got what they wanted out of their trip to Washington, but, boy, did they have to work to get it.

After tying the game late in regulation, the B’s earned the split on Brad Marchand’s overtime goal just 39 seconds into the extra session when he blasted a one-timer off a Matt Grzelcyk pass to lift the B’s to a 4-3 win at Capital One Arena, sending the series back to Boston tied 1-1. Game 3 is Wednesday.

“It’s a good feeling to go back to Boston 1-1,” said Marchand. “We went through it last game and it’s tough to lose in overtime. It hurts. But you battle back like we did tonight and we just seemed to have it a little more tonight than we did in (Game 1).”

On the winner, David Pastrnak knocked a loose puck back to David Krejci at the point after Krejci had changed on for Patrice Bergeron. He moved it to Grzelcyk on the left side and the defenseman threaded a perfect cross-ice diagonal pass for Marchand’s one-timer. Marchand then sprinted to the Boston bench, leapt and landed in the arms of Taylor Hall.

“That was awesome,” said Hall wiht a wide grin. “I felt like I had scored the goal.”

No he didn’t, but it was Hall’s goal with 2:49 left in regulation that allowed the B’s to depart the nation’s capital with happy faces. The B’s tied it up up on a wild net-front front scramble with some of the will they didn’t show in Game 1. Hall, who started the sequence with good rush, jammed the puck under Craig Anderson with a host of bodies hacking and whacking in the crease with 2:49 left in regulation.

It was a heavy lifting night for the B’s, who pumped 48 shots on Craig Anderson and very much earned the W.

“The guys that have been here understood the urgency of this game. We had to play better. We did. Obviously getting the win is very important but for our own selves we had to play a better hockey game. I thought we were the better hockey team tonight and we were full value for the win,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “Everyone came to play.”

Marchand was at his competitive best and worst all night. He had wiped out a Bruin power-play wiht a retaliatory penalty and was sent off for a matching penalties with Anthony Mantha in the third. But when he finishes off a playoff game the way he did, the good stuff tends to stick out.

“There’s way, way more good than bad. And I think he wanted to drag us into the fight. And we needed it tonight, because he didn’t start on time,” said Cassidy.

The Capitals took their first lead of the game at 7:04 of the third period. The B’s had taken two penalties in the first five minutes of the period and were able to kill them both off. But before they could grab any momentum from that, a neutral zone mistake led to a 2-on-1. Kevan Miller tried to step up in front of his blue line but Carl Hagelin beat him to it, tipping it to Dmitri Orlov who had Garnet Hathaway on his right. He zipped it over to Hathaway for a one-timer over Tuukka Rask’s glove.

But the B’s tied it up up on Hall’s goal to send it to OT

The Bruins took two one-goal leads in the first period, only to see the Capitals come back and tie it in a wide-open first 20 that saw each time throw 18 shots on net.

The Caps came out flying and forced Rask to make a big save early on when Nic Dowd got behind Charlie Coyle for a quick breakaway that Rask turned aside.

The B’s also suffered a loss early when Miller crushed Daniel Sprong on a check, but his surgically repaired left knee went into the boards and he left the game just 2:25 in. He missed the rest of the first period, but returned in the second.

Coyle made up for his early mistake by creating the first goal of the game. Returned to the center position, Coyle took the puck wide, then around the net before feeding DeBrusk in the crease for a contested tap-in at 5:05, DeBrusk’s second in as many games.

But it didn’t take long for the Caps to even it up. Twelve seconds after David Pastrnak was called for holding Michael Raffl, who got away with a free hit on Rask, Alex Ovechkin pulled down his stick that was cocked for a one-timer to avoid a Brandon Carlo block and snapped a shot that T.J. Oshie deflected home at 6:31.

Pastrnak then made up for his penalty. He gloved down a Dmitry Orlov aerial clear attempt at the blue line then attacked down the right wing. He dished back to Patrice Bergeron in the high slot and the captain beat Craig Anderson’s glove at 9:21.

But then the Caps tied it on a crushing, soft goal by Rask at 16:42. Lars Eller had a rare clean faceoff win against Bergeron, drawing it back to Orlov. He fired a point shot that hit Hathaway at the top of the left circle and then it somehow skittered through his pads.

With Miller back, the B’s a better — though scoreless — second, both in their zone and grinding in the offensive zone. They outshot the Caps 15-9 and turned down a couple of shots as well.

The officials called three sets of matching penalties in the second as the two teams fought for every inch of ice. Brad Marchand was having a tough time controlling his emotions. He wiped out a Bruin power play in the first period with a retaliatory penalty and then got sent off with Anthony Mantha when they got into it behind the Washington net after the whistle.

The B’s had a great chance to move ahead on a second period power-play when a rebound came out to Pastrnak on the left side. He had to locate it in his skates and, with a Cap closing, he shot it wide.

With their previous 10 playoff games having been decided by one goal, it was no surprise they went into the third period deadlocked at 2-2.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3bAMqyJ