BSJ Game Report: Bruins 4, Capitals 2 - Swayman stands tall again as shorthanded B's best Caps

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-2 win over the Capitals in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

HEADLINES

No Rask. No McAvoy. No Carlo. No Halak. ... No problem.

Thursday's matchup against one of the top dogs in the East in the Capitals had all the makings of a rough night for the B's — especially with Boston still missing two of its top-four blueliners and with Jeremy Swayman facing another daunting assignment against Alex Ovechkin and a high-octane Washington offense.

But behind another strong outing from the B's rookie netminder, some stout D-zone play and welcome secondary-scoring contributions, Boston snatched two points from the Caps — leaving the Capital One Arena ice with a 4-2 victory.

Swayman stopped 31 of the 33 shots that came his way in the victory, while Brad Marchand tallied the eventual game-winning tally off of of a shorthanded goal in the second period. With the win, the B's improve to 21-10-6 on the season and now hold a six-point lead over the Flyers for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division.

You couldn't have asked for a better start for the B's in this one, with Jeremy Lauzon's point shot slipping past Ilya Samsonov just 33 seconds into the contest to put Boston ahead early. A bit of puck luck aided Boston later in the frame, with a ricocheting puck tucked home from Anton Blidh at 16:02 to give the B's some breathing room. While Boston managed to pepper Samsonov with 17 shots in the opening 20 minutes, the Caps only managed nine shots against Swayman down the other end of the ice, with the rookie netminder turning aside all of the attempts that came his way — including a couple of Grade-A looks from Garnet Hathaway and Tom Wilson.

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It seemed as though Boston was poised to pile things on the second frame, with Marchand embarrassing both Samsonov and Justin Schultz off of a danglefest that ended with the winger's 30th career shorthanded goal 4:09 into the period. But any attempts for the Bruins to put the rest of the contest on cruise control were negated to repeated trips to the sin bin — with both a roughing and slashing call against Blidh gifting the Capitals a four-minute power play that was upgraded to a 5-on-3 sequence after Jakub Zboril was whistled for interference just seconds later.

Given new life on the man advantage, the Caps took advantage and made it a one-goal game in the span of just 19 seconds — with both Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie burying goals during the power-play sequence.

But in the third, the Bruins clamped down in and around Swayman, with Lauzon (25:10) and Kevan Miller (25:18) leading the way for a very shorthanded D corps against the third-ranked offense in the NHL — while Craig Smith snuffed out any chance of a Caps rally with a power-play goal at 16:55 in the contest.

FIVE UP

Jeremy Swayman: Swayman has been money so far in his brief time up in the NHL — stopping 71 of the 75 shots that he's faced against the Flyers and Capitals. And even with the two goals knocked against him tonight, both came in the midst of an extended 5-on-3 sequence with big guns like Ovechkin, Oshie, Backstrom and others putting in work. Not too shabby, to say the least.

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Brad Marchand: Marchand's Hart Trophy campaign continues after he absolutely undressed the Caps on his eventual game-winning shorthanded tally in the second period. That strike stood as the 30th shorthanded goal of his career, tying Bob Pulford for 22nd on the league's all-time list.

Craig Smith: Don't look now, but Smith is now up to 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in his last 10 games. After a largely frustrating night on the power play, Smith's snipe in the closing minutes of the third period gave Boston some much-needed breathing room.

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Jeremy Lauzon/Kevan Miller: With both McAvoy and Carlo still out, both Lauzon and Miller stepped up in a major way. Lauzon finally broke through with his first goal of the season and ended up logging an absurd 7:32 of shorthanded ice time, while Miller absolutely stuffed the stat sheet — blocking five shots, landing five hits and logging 25:18 of ice time. That knee will need to be managed, but Miller has been a force since getting back into the lineup. A difference-maker, no doubt.

Sean Kuraly/Chris Wagner: The 2021 season has been far from kind to either of these fourth-line stalwarts, but both skaters were huge on Thursday night — extending O-zone shifts with an effective forechecking effort while negating top-six matchups against the likes of both Backstrom and Kuznetsov's lines. When that checking line is stringing together good shifts, this team can hem opponents in their own zone for extended stretches. Cassidy will be looking for more of this moving forward from both skaters.

ONE DOWN

Anton Blidh: He might have potted that goal off of a lucky bounce in the first period, but Blidh can't be taking a pair of penalties like that with Boston riding high with a three-goal lead. Complain all you want about whether or not they were soft calls — but you can't put yourself (and your team) in a spot like that.

PLAY OF THE GAME

No doubt about this one. What a filthy set of moves from Marchand here.

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PARTING THOUGHTS

A couple of heavy punches from Nick Ritchie here.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

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LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will close out their road trip on Saturday with a rematch with the Flyers. Puck drop is set for 2 p.m.