Holtby paced the Capitals to a three-game season sweep of the Boston Bruins, posting a shutout in each victory.Holtby allowed four goals on the first 10 shots he faced in a 5-2 loss at the New York Rangers on Tuesday, Washington’s first road loss. Backstrom has nine points in nine games this season and 28 points in 26 career games against Boston. Eriksson had just one multi-goal performance in the entire 2014-15 season.
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The Boston Bruins look to remain hot after winning six of their last eight games. Holtby proved it was just a hiccup, as his solid record improves to 7-3-0 this year with a. 916 save percentage and 2.12 goals against average.
The Bruins are 5-0 in their last 5 road games and 1-4 in their last 5 Thursday games.
After blanking Boston in all three games between the teams last season, Holtby fell behind 1-0 when a centering pass from Brett Connolly ricocheted high off the stick of Washington defenseman Matt Niskanen, hit Jimmy Hayes in the chest and bounced into the net. The Boston Bruins are averaging 3.8 goals per game and are scoring on 34.2 percent of their power plays.
Alex Ovechkin has scored his 7th goal of the season, a splendid slapper from a kneeling position.
The Bruins dominated the early moments, spending large amounts of time in the Caps zone.
“We started how we wanted to start, and then took a couple of penalties, and they ended up scoring on that and getting a few momentum”, Hayes said. Hayes took a bad neutral zone slashing penalty and, 42 seconds later, Brad Marchand cuffed T.J. Oshie in the back of the head after the whistle following a net-front battle. Heads up against Brooks Orpik, Oshie, and Ovechkin; all will light you up when you’re not looking.
“I thought the second-period penalties were really bad on our part”, Julien said. The third period, we had to claw our way back into it and they’re a good defensive team. “Today, we just reset and realized we were playing a very good offensive team and focused on our game plan and not on the past or the future, just the present”. No longer a one-dimensional team, they now have a strong six-pack of defensemen, good goaltending and a healthy dose of nastiness to go along with the high-end skill they’ve always had.
“We did have control the first half of the period, and after we scored that goal, they kind of took over”, Marchand said. “‘We can’t let that happen”.
Last week Karl Alzner and Justin Williams mentioned a lofty hope for the season; do not lose back-to-back games. Boston’s Kevan Miller played in his 100th career game….
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NOTES: Washington coach Barry Trotz was named to the Team Canada coaching staff for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, which will be held in Toronto from September 17-Oct. It was the first of three games in four nights for the Bruins, who face Montreal on Saturday and the Islanders on Sunday.
