Capitals shut out Bruins, hold onto 2nd wild card in East

WASHINGTON -- Charlie Lindgren made 16 saves, and the Washington Capitals held on to the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with a 2-0 win against the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on Monday.

John Carlson and Nic Dowd scored for the Capitals (39-31-11), who have won three of four and control their destiny heading into the final game of the regular season against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

“We understand what’s on the line, and I think you can see the effort,” Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said. “Huge goal by ‘Carly.’ Great job by ‘Chuckie,’ obviously. So, I think we played a solid 60 minutes, so right now we have to concentrate tomorrow on one game. The next game is going to be a big one.”

The Capitals and Detroit Red Wings are tied with 89 points, but Washington owns the tiebreaker with more regulation wins. The Penguins have 88 points, and the Flyers have 87. Each team has one game remaining.

“Tonight was a great one, just from start to finish,” said Lindgren, who recorded his sixth shutout of the season. “I thought the boys in red were all over them tonight. Probably one of our best games of the year, honestly. Love to see it. Enjoy it tonight, and then obviously you've got to be 100 percent ready to go tomorrow.”

Jeremy Swayman made 23 saves for the Bruins (47-19-15), who have lost two of three and lead the Florida Panthers by one point for first in the Atlantic Division. Each team has one game remaining.

“They looked like a team that was fighting for a playoff spot,” Bruins forward Charlie Coyle said. “We looked like a team that was already in the playoffs. That wasn’t good. We didn’t have our sense of urgency that we usually have and winning loose pucks, winning our battles, we didn’t do nearly enough of that.”

Carlson gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 12:00 of the first period, scoring on a slap shot from the point off a pass from Dylan Strome.

“I thought we played really well in all three zones,” Carlson said. “I thought we should've had a lot more. We were swarming the net against a tough defending team. I thought we got a lot of chances and didn't get discouraged by not maybe having a few more than we did earlier on in the game and found a way.”

Dowd made it 2-0 with an empty-net goal with 13 seconds remaining after stealing the puck in the offensive zone.

Lindgren made eight saves in the third period.

"I'm not going to put too much into it, to be honest,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of the loss. “We didn't play well. Yeah, we start Saturday, we've had a real good string of games against real good teams, so I think our team is a confident team that didn't give our best effort tonight."

NOTES: Capitals forward Beck Malenstyn left the game because of an upper-body injury late in the second period after a hit from Bruins forward Trent Frederic. Carbery said Malenstyn will travel to Philadelphia and his status will be determined there. … Carlson has four points (two goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak.