Final: Capitals 3, Bruins 2

Tom Wilson was a one-man wrecking crew and helped the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night at TD Garden. He scored two goals and physically dominated the home team. The Capitals used their overall size and strength to their advantage all game.

The Bruins couldn't create enough quality scoring chances and missed opportunities on the power play, especially late in the game when Boston failed to convert on a four-minute man-advantage.

Tuukka Rask, who played one of his better games of the season during a 2-1 win over the Golden Knights on Thursday, finished with 24 saves.

Bruce Cassidy went with the same lineup that finished that game against Vegas.

Prior to the game, the Bruins honored referee Chris Rooney for his 1,000th officiated game.

Observations from the third period

The Bruins were handed a four-minute power play after the Capitals' Brooks Orpik caught David Pastrnak with a high stick. At one point during Boston's power play, Washington was outshooting the Bruins, 3-1. So, Cassidy took a timeout in an attempt to regroup. However, the Capitals were able to kill it off.

Charlie McAvoy is struggling tonight.

The Bruins finally connected on the power play when Pastrnak scored his second goal of the game at 17:28 of the period.

Observations from the second period

The Capitals' Tom Wilson is wreaking havoc on the Bruins tonight. His second goal of the game at 18:50 of the period gives Washington a 3-1 lead.

The Bruins' top line produced as Pastrnak scored his first goal in the last five games to gut Boston's deficit to one at 3:37 of the period. It's No. 88's seventh goal of the season.

Austin Czarnik has a knack of chipping the puck out clean along the wall from the defensive zone.

Matt Beleskey playing with energy tonight.

With 8:56 remaining in the period, the Bruins are playing with urgency and competing a lot better than they did in the first period.

Observations from the first period

Brad Marchand was on the receiving ned of a big hit by the Capitals' Tom Wilson early in the period. Marchand was clearly shaken up on the play and cautiously made his way to the bench. He never went to the room and didn't miss a shift.

Wilson then gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 7:01. It was Wilson's first of the season.

Patrice Bergeron always has the awareness to force the opponent to take a defensive-end face off after the Bruins were caught on the ice following an icing call.

With 7:33 remaining in the period, Ovechkin had a breakaway but Rask made the save to keep it a one-goal deficit for the Bruins. However, that didn't last long. Ovechkin capitalized on his vintage one-timer from the left circle and beat Rask on the same shift.

Marchand was visibly upset in the closing seconds of the period as he smashed his stick in two over the boards after a collision with the Capitals' John Carlson.

Twice in that period, Charlie McAvoy controlled the puck in the offensive zone, and instead of shooting, he looked for redirections. The Bruins weren't able to generate any significant quality chances, so he should be putting the puck on net in those situations.

Here are the projected line combinations and defensive pairings vs. Capitals 

Forwards

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak

DeBrusk-Nash-Schaller

Heinen-Szwarz-Bjork

Beleskey-Kuraly-Czarnik

Defense

Chara-McAvoy

Krug-Carlo

Postma-Miller

Goalies

Rask

McIntyre