Logan Thompson made 25 saves and Aliaksei Protas scored twice to help the Caps outlast the visiting Boston Bruins 3-1 on Tuesday afternoon at Capital One Arena. Tuesday’s victory gives Washington a 10-2-0 record on the season in games immediately following losses this season.
The victory was Washington’s fourth in a row on home ice, and the Caps have now pulled points in each of their last half dozen games at home (5-0-1).
“Special teams, Logan Thompson – and I thought [Boston goaltender Jeremy] Swayman was good as well,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery, checking off the reasons his team prevailed. “But I thought LT was really good. And I thought us just grinding our way through.”
In rebounding from Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit, the Caps were able to shake off an early Boston goal and a cheesy penalty call late in the second period. Many of the League’s Original 32 are playing three games in four days/nights coming out of the NHL’s holiday break, but Washington is one of only three of those teams being tasked with playing and completing three games in less than 72 hours.
Given those circumstances, the Caps’ total of 28 blocked shots – they got at least one from 16 of their 18 skaters – is impressive. They’ve been laying out in front of their goaltenders all season, but Tuesday’s display came in a game in which they didn’t have much else going on; only one of their three goals came at 5-on-5.
“There’s going to be points throughout the year where you’re grinding, and two of those games [involved] travel as well,” says Caps defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who delivered the game-winning goal on a first-period power play.
“It’s just finding ways of picking each other up if we don’t have our best stuff. We’ve got guys in here who have won and played a long time in this League. You lean on those guys in those moments, and this group is always sticking together and pulling in the same direction, and I think you see it. It’s evident that the boys love each other in this room.”
Boston jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a late holiday gift – a “building bounce” goal. Bruins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon dumped the puck into Washington ice, and it clanked off a stanchion on the left side and kicked laterally, straight into the crease. Caps goalie Logan Thompson put his pad down to keep it from going in, but in doing so, the puck went directly to the slot for a Justin Brazeau put back and a 1-0 Boston lead at 1:21 of the first period.
“I was just going in on the forecheck, trying to get to the goalie if he played the puck,” recounts Brazeau of his second goal in as many games against the Capitals this season. “And the puck luckily bounced in front of the net, and I reached out and put it in.”
Washington got rolling just after the midpoint of the first period. Off the rush, P-L Dubois carried down the left side for the Caps, but his bad angle shot bounded off the side of the cage. Dubois stayed on the puck, retrieving it behind the Boston net and quickly feeding Protas in front. From there, the big forward pounded a shot past Swayman on the far side, squaring the score at 1-1 at 12:05 of the first period.
Less than five minutes later, Boston opened the door a bit for the Caps when Mark Kastelic hi-sticked Martin Fehervary in the Bruins’ offensive zone, putting Washington on the game’s first power play. The Caps needed all of 15 seconds and one shot for Chychrun to deliver what would prove to be the game-winner from the top of the right circle, lifting them to a 2-1 lead they would protect for the rest of the afternoon.
Fehervary left the game before the six-minute mark of the third period and did not return after taking another high stick up high, this one from teammate Tom Wilson.
The second period wasn’t as pretty. The Caps needed to kill off a pair of penalties – including a phantom tripping call on Chychrun in the back half of the frame – but they did so, although it kept them from generating much offensive zone time in the middle of that period.
Washington spaced its blocked shots quite evenly – nine each in the first and third periods sandwiched around 10 in the middle stanza. And everything that did get through, Thompson had the answer. His glove was particularly sharp on Tuesday.
“Credit to the guys; they’re putting their bodies on the line every night,” says Thompson. “And I know they’re tired; it’s been a tough schedule as of late. But we needed that; these points are going to go a long way. But again, that’s just how we play as a team.”
With less than 20 ticks remaining on the clock, Nic Dowd won a draw in Washington ice, and Wilson sent Protas into the Boston zone for a layup of an empty-net goal. Protas’ 16th goal of the season puts him in a tie with Alex Ovechkin and Connor McMichael for the team lead on the season. With eight goals in December, Protas paced the Caps in that department in the final month of 2024.
Eight days after the Bruins limited them to 11 shots on net in a 4-1 loss in Boston, the Caps turned the tables on one of the League’s hottest squads. The B’s came into town with a 12-5-1 mark in their previous 18 contests.
“It was a tight-checking game, like we knew it would be, through the neutral zones and the end zones,” says Boston interim coach Joe Sacco. “There was not a lot of room out there, you have to fight for your offense, you have to work for your offense.
“We had some chances in the third, to capitalize or to tie it up. We had a really good start to the game; we came out ready to play, and we were down 2-1 after one, which was unfortunate because I thought we had a good first period.”
