BOSTON — This was one the Washington Capitals could have mailed in and nobody would have noticed.
Instead, the points-poor Caps gave the Northeast Division-leading Boston Bruins all they could handle last night, fighting them to a 3-3 overtime standoff.
“The game could have gone their way,” said Caps center Jeff Halpern, whose deflection with 8:51 left in regulation salvaged the tie. “But we got a couple of good bounces and we earned our chances.”
This was meant to be a happy reunion with their old mates for both Sergei Gonchar and Michael Nylander, Bruins for less than a month. But Washington put a damper on that by refusing to fold, even though the Caps were outshot 38-27 and had to twice haul themselves back from one-goal deficits before a FleetCenter crowd of 15,588.
“It was hard for me at the beginning,” said Gonchar. “I made a couple of turnovers and passed the puck to the wrong people.”
Gonchar said that once the puck dropped he was able to wipe old loyalties out of his mind.
“When the game starts, you’re just playing,” he said. “You can’t think about it. You just do what you need to do. [Still,] I’m glad it’s behind me.”
Scoring chances were few for both sides in what played out as a scoreless first period. The most dangerous of Washington’s nine shots came 20 seconds in when Halpern was set up in front by Craig Johnson but was thwarted by Bruins goalie Andrew Raycroft, who dipped low to make the stop.
Nylander made an unintentional impact against his old team when he bloodied Brendan Witt’s nose with a high stick. Nylander received a double minor on the play while Witt was handed a roughing major for retaliating against his former mate.
The Caps were forced to kill off four Boston power plays but did so without allowing a serious scoring chance. But Washington finally was burned on the power play when at 5:52 of the second, with Josef Boumedienne in the box for holding, Nick Boynton scored from the right point to give Boston the lead. The Caps responded with goals by Witt and Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and took a 2-1 lead into the third period.
Witt’s goal, his second of the year, came at 8:48. Witt barreled in across the blue line and took a pass from Johnson in full stride. Witt then beat Raycroft to the right side.
“[Witt] could have stopped playing here four games ago,” said Washington coach Glen Hanlon. “He had an injury, and he had an option [to sit]. He’s playing hurt and he’s sore. But he loves to play.”
At 12:53, Kip Miller pounced on a giveaway by Boston’s Brian Rolston, then feathered a short feed to Grand-Pierre, who polished it off for his third goal of the season and first since joining the Caps on March9.
From that point, the Caps’ task was to dash Boston’s comeback efforts, a tall order considering the Bruins’ ability to mount a third-period rally. The Bruins had won nine games this season after trailing in the third period, the NHL’s best such mark.
“We battled hard,” said Halpern. “They’re a better team than we are. We are pretty overmatched [with Boston]. If we played them seven times, they might beat us seven times. It’s nice to see Gonch and Nyles do well there. But this is a chance to feel good about the way we played.”
Said Hanlon: “I don’t know if the rest of the league realizes how good they [Gonchar and Nylander] were when they were in Washington. I think Nylander gives them another line, and Gonch seems to be doing his thing. That’s a couple good trades for Boston, and hopefully it works out for [us] somewhere down the line.”
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