Last February 10 in Boston, Charlie Lindgren started the Caps’ late-season surge with a 3-0 blanking of the Bruins. On Saturday night at Capital One Arena, Lindgren finished the Caps’ six-pack of exhibition games with another shutout win over the Bruins, a 2-0, 17-save shutout.
Aliaksei Protas scored a shorthanded goal in the first period to supply Lindgren with all the offense he would require on this night, and Trevor van Riemsdyk tacked on a pretty insurance tally in the back half of the third period.
Saturday’s win lifts the Caps to 3-3-0 on the preseason; Washington now must wait for a week to kick off its 50th anniversary season; the Caps host the New Jersey Devils here a week from tonight in their season opener, which also starts a three-game homestand.
Having played a neutral site exhibition game in Quebec City against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night, the Bruins dressed a spartan lineup for the last of their seven preseason outings, but goaltender Brandon Bussi went the distance and kept the game within reach with a 30-save performance.
“The one thing that you do notice about a Boston Bruins team – and yeah, most of these guys will play in [AHL] Providence [this season], is they’re all competitive guys that we’ve seen along the way,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “and I’ve coached against them and our guys know and have played them. I would say we controlled play and that, but it was a highly competitive game out there and we did some good things. Offensively, we’re still going to be a work in progress.
“When you control play like that, you would expect to get three, four or five [goals]; it’s like 1-0 tonight. And our power play [didn’t score] and some things there, so we’ll continue to work at that, continue to develop chemistry, continue to try to find some combinations at 5-on-5. We sort of stuck with some lines, but this was the first time during training camp that I just felt like we could do more with all of the controlling of the play, so to speak.”
With Boston on the power play just ahead of the midpoint of the first period, Connor McMichael cruised down the left side and fired a shot that was blocked and went out of play, forcing a left dot faceoff to Bussi’s right. Protas stepped in and won the draw, pushing his way toward the net in the process. From in tight, he lifted a short side shot over Bussi’s right should to give the Caps an early 1-0 lead at the nine-minute mark of the first. Protas’ goal came just three seconds after the face-off.
“It was just a lucky bounce off the linesman out there,” says Protas of his goal. “And I just capitalized on that chance, which is pretty good. But nothing special; I will be honest with you.”
It was special enough to stand up as the game-winner.
Lindgren needed to make only two saves in the first frame, but the second of those was a sharp stop on a Max Jones bid from the bottom of the left circle after an Alex Ovechkin turnover deep in Washington ice. The first period was a quick one with only a dozen face-offs, and the Caps, who dressed most of their likely opening night lineup, had the better of possession in all three periods. That disparity was particularly evident in the first period when Washington out-attempted Boston 19-5 at 5-on-5.
With just under six minutes remaining in the game, Taylor Raddysh won a board battle along the left wing half wall, chipping the puck down low where van Riemsdyk collected it and moved toward the net. From just below the bottom of the left circle, van Riemsdyk expertly shoveled a backhander to the shelf on the short side, giving Lindgren some margin for error that he didn’t need.
Washington penalty killers limited the Bruins to a single shot on goal in three power play opportunities in the game.
“I thought we had a really good night of tape-to-tape passes and getting pucks in deep when they’re not giving us a chance to bring it in ourselves,” says Lindgren. “And then when we did have a chance to bring it in and have a controlled entry, we did. I thought all four lines and all six [defensemen] had a really good game tonight. It’s a good thing that we played like that tonight.”
