Bruins score five straight to hand Capitals first regulation loss

WASHINGTON -- Brandon Carlo scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:37 left in regulation, and the Boston Bruins rallied from three goals down for a 5-3 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Monday.

Carlo scored on a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Sean Kuraly below the goal line to make it 4-3 before Brad Marchand scored Boston's fourth goal of the period into an empty net at 18:34.
"Sean did a great job getting on in there, controlling the puck, working his way to the other side of the net and finding me. It starts with him," Carlo said. "Tonight, was a resilient effort by the team. The energy was rising in the third period."
David Pastrnak scored his first two goals of the season for the Bruins (6-1-2), who are 5-0-1 in their past six games. Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves.
"When you're down a couple goals, you've just got to press and live with the result, and if they come back the other way and make good plays against us, then we'll move on," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Zdeno Chara scored against his former team for the Capitals (6-1-3), who also blew a 3-0 lead against the Bruins on Saturday but recovered for a 4-3 overtime victory. Vitek Vanecek made 28 saves.

"The third period and the goals they scored were, I don't like the fact that we weren't attacking as much. It was like we were good with the lead," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "The first period I thought we were good. We were driving the period the way that we wanted to. We didn't do that in the third period, so you're sitting back."
Pastrnak, who was playing in his second game this season after recovering from hip surgery on Sept. 16, cut it to 3-1 at 12:37 of the second period with a one-timer from the high slot off a pass from Marchand.
"On the scoring, obviously it felt great," Pastrnak said. "Had a little trouble, I was missing the net a lot, so obviously it was a good one that finally hit the net. Definitely good to get the first one off."
Pastrnak then pulled Boston within 3-2 at 6:08 of the third period when he took a pass from Jakub Zboril, curled toward the slot and scored on a wrist shot.

Craig Smith tied it 3-3 at 13:07 after receiving a cross-slot pass from Jeremy Lauzon.
"It was kind of a broken play up top," Smith said. "He just kept rolling and hanging on to the puck. He made a great pass to that backdoor there on his backhand. I just had to get my stick on the ice and put it in."
Chara gave Washington a 1-0 lead with a slap shot from the point at 13:26 of the first period, and Daniel Sprong scored 11 seconds later to make it 2-0 when he beat Halak five-hole with a wrist shot from the right circle.
Washington outshot Boston 15-2 over the final 14:00 of the first period.
"The first period we came out strong," Sprong said. "Last game against Boston, they kind of dominated us in the first. This game we came out hard in the first. We just didn't finish the full 60 minutes."
John Carlson extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal at 8:35 of the second period, but Boston outshot Washington 20-8 the rest of the way.
"Just little things all over the ice. We didn't play very well tonight," Carlson said. "Last game I thought we had a lot better effort towards the end of the game than we did tonight."
NOTES:Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov and goalie Ilya Samsonov each missed his sixth straight game while in the League's COVID-19 protocol. … Bruins forward Charlie Coyle, who sat out practice on Sunday with an upper-body injury, played 15:55. … Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy had an assist for his 100th NHL point. … Washington forward Conor Sheary left the game late in the third period and is day to day with a lower-body injury. … Carlson extended his point streak to seven games (three goals, six assists). … Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov had one hit and one block in 15:24 of ice time in his return after missing the previous five games while in COVID-19 protocol.