Caps Down B's in Boston, 2-1

Darcy Kuemper typically doesn't get much in the way of offensive support. In his first season with Washington, the Caps' goaltender entered Saturday's game in Boston with an average of just 2.62 goals per game in offensive support, ranking 40th among the 49 NHL netminders with at least 18 starts this season.

Facing the NHL's best team in the League's toughest building - and doing so in an afternoon game following a 10-day layoff - Kuemper made sure he didn't need much in the way of support. He stopped 27 of 28 Boston shots to help lift Washington to a 2-1 victory over the Bruins on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.
With the win, Kuemper improves to 2-7-0 lifetime against the Bruins, who suffered just their second regulation loss (22-2-3) in 27 games on home ice this season. Boston is one of the League's best special teams clubs, and the Caps earned the victory by winning the special teams battle. They took the lead on a power-play goal in the first and never relinquished it, and they sealed the two points with a pair of clutch kills in the third.
"Especially here when you get a team that's playing well like they are right now, I think getting that lead after the first period and just keeping everything kind of quiet inside the building, the building can be loud," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "And I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
With both teams coming off a lengthy layoff, it's not surprising that the two sides combined to take a slew of penalties in the early going of Saturday's game. The upshot of the five minor penalties whistled in a span of just 1:44 worth of playing time was a Boston power play followed by some 4-on-4 hockey, followed by a two-man advantage for the Capitals.
As they've done frequently this season, the Caps cashed in on the 5-on-3 power play and grabbed an early lead. After Boston netminder Jeremy Swayman stopped Marcus Johansson's shot from the top of the paint, Nicklas Backstrom was right there to bury the rebound for a 1-0 Washington lead at 6:28 of the first.
"It's always so important to get the first goal," says Backstrom. "And obviously you've got to take advantage of the 5-on-3 we got. You need to score those goals in those situations, so it was a good start for us."
Backstrom's goal on the two-man advantage was Washington's fourth in five opportunities with the 5-on-3 power play this season, and he is the fourth different Caps skater to score in that situation this season.
The Caps played well in the first frame, and they ushered that 1-0 lead to the first intermission. Boston kept the Caps at bay offensively for most of the middle frame, limiting them to just four shots on net. But just after the midpoint of the middle period, the Caps doubled their lead when they got one of those shots behind Swayman.
Boston forward Jeremy Lauko threw a puck away along the half wall in his own end, and Caps winger Garnet Hathaway made an excellent keep at the blueline. Hathaway then crept in toward the high slot and let loose of a wrist shot through traffic, beating Swayman to make it 2-0 at 11:40.
"They're a good team in the neutral zone, and they defend quickly," says Hathaway. "So we're trying to get a battle on the boards and get it into the zone, and then you're trying to attack their [defensemen] and attack through the middle of the ice, and make them turn or make them distressed a little bit. The puck squeaks out to me, and I'm in the slot, so like a lot of us are thinking, 'Let's shoot it, and then we'll get to the net, and we'll get the rebound and score.' And It just goes in on the first shot."
Seconds later, the Caps had an opportunity to add to their lead with another power play, but Boston's penalty killing outfit put on a clinic to keep the deficit at two goals.
That proved to be big for Boston when Nick Foligno halved the Washington lead to 2-1 late in the second. After taking a feed from Connor Clifton behind the Caps' cage, Foligno chipped a shot past Kuemper at the right post at 16:34.
The Caps found themselves in a better position than most teams to visit this city this season; if they could win the third period, they could win themselves a hockey game and claim a pair of much needed points. They probably didn't win the third, but they didn't lose it, either. The Caps and Kuemper kept the Bruins at bay for the final 20 minutes, making Hathaway's marker - his second in as many games and sixth since Dec. 31 - stand up as the game-winner.
"It would have been disappointing to come into this building and not put in the effort that we did," says Kuemper. "But we all knew the position that we were in, and we played unbelievable. It's probably the hardest building to win in this year, so that's big for us."
It'll be even bigger if the Caps can come home and get another one on Sunday against San Jose. Saturday's win gives Washington consecutive victories for the first time since late December, and those wins come at the end of a stretch in which the Caps played six of their last seven games on the road. Starting on Sunday against the Sharks, they're home for six of their next seven games.
"We got one [win] before the break, and we got one now," says Laviolette. "And we start the month of February off - our first game [this month] - and we've got to continue to build off of that and have a good February."
Boston owns the best record in the League by far, but Saturday's loss is its fourth in its last five games (1-3-1).
"I thought our effort was good," says Bruins' coach Jim Montgomery. "You expect it to be a little sloppy; it was sloppy in the first. We got better, as we expected to get better. I thought we were really good in the second; I didn't love the beginning of our third. But still the effort is there. The execution is going to come."