As you've probably heard, there is nothing in sports quite like playoff hockey and that roller coaster of emotions was on full display tonight at the Capital One Arena. Boston rallied from a late 3-2 deficit in the third period to tie it on left wing Taylor Hall's first postseason goal in black and gold then star Brad Marchand scored the fastest OT goal in franchise playoff history (39 seconds!) as they won Game 2 by a score of 4-3 against Washington. After losing 3-2 in overtime in Game 1, the Bruins evened the series at one game apiece with Game 3 on Wednesday (6:30, NESN) at the TD Garden. The win snapped a five-game playoff losing streak for the B's dating back to last postseason in the bubble vs. Tampa Bay while the Capitals have now dropped three of their last four playoff games that have gone to overtime.
Up until their strong finish to Game 2, this felt like it would end on another sour note for Boston with them trailing 0-2 in the series and headed home for the next two contests. Two times in the first period the Bruins took the lead only to see the Caps quickly answer back. They also once again made 39-year-old goaltender Craig Anderson (44 saves) look way better than he should be in 2021. Right wing Jake DeBrusk has definitely put a terrible regular season behind him as he scored for the second straight game. BU's Charlie Coyle started the play by going around the net (while Anderson slid much too far out of the crease) then feeding DeBrusk in front for an easy tap-in. Nick Ritchie had the second assist on the opening tally at 5:05. Boston took a bunch of dumb penalties this evening and it cost them when right wing T.J. Oshie tipped in Alex Ovechkin's weak wrist shot at 6:31. Capitals defenseman John Carlson provided the second assist on Oshie's first goal of the playoffs.
Boston's top line had been invisible in Game 1 so it was great to see captain Patrice Bergeron snipe a shot past Anderson at 9:21. Right wing David Pastrnak had the lone assist on Bergy's first goal of the postseason. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (36 saves) was good in Game 2 well except for the goal that Washington scored to make it 2-2. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov put the puck on net (or tried to) but the shot deflected off right wing Garnet Hathaway's skate and through a maze of bodies into the net. It was the first career goal for the Brown alum and Maine native with former Canadien Lars Eller (who later left with a lower-body injury and never returned) adding the second helper at 16:42.
After a scoreless second period, Hathaway handed the Caps their first lead (3-2) at 7:04. That wasn't a fluke although it started with a ill-timed pinch by Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller which led to a 2-on-1. Orlov fed Hathaway who beat Rask top shelf with left wing Carl Hagelin credited with the other assist. Hall's tying goal was not of the sexy variety that he displayed multiple times late in the regular season but nevertheless, it was highly effective and just as memorable. Right wing Craig Smith and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk had the assists but Hall did the most dirty work as Anderson stopped all of them before Taylor finally found an open space to knock the puck into the net. That huge momentum swing at 17:11 carried Boston through the rest of regulation and into the very brief extra session. The game-ending sequence started when Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon's awful clearing attempt was intercepted by Bruins center David Krejci at Washington's blue line. He shuttled the puck across to Grzelcyk who found Marchand with another cross-ice pass. Brad made no mistake there since he crushed a one-timer that Anderson could not get over fast enough to stop.
You cannot emphasize enough how important this victory was to Boston since trailing 0-2 and returning to the pressure of the Garden could have been a tough combination for them to overcome. Luckily, they stepped up at winning time and hopefully cracked the code a bit on the mediocre Anderson. I'd love to say that the B's will win Game 3 in a blowout but the fact remains that the last 11 (!) playoff games between the Bruins and Capitals have all been decided by one goal. Enjoy the beautiful weather tomorrow, watch the goofy Celtics-Wizards Play-In Tournament game (9, TNT) and get ready for what should be a beauty of an event on Causeway Street on Wednesday.
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