Center’s three goals help down the Bruins With three of their top players out of the lineup, including suspended left wing Alex Ovechkin, the Capitals entered Tuesday’s game against the Boston Bruins with far less skill on hand than usual.
Washington expected to feature a grind-it-out performance to defeat the defending Stanley Cup champions. Mathieu Perreault had other ideas.
The 24-year-old center recorded his first career hat trick, including the eventual game-winning goal at 7:18 of the third period. That lead held up in what became a 5-3 victory at Verizon Center.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” said Perreault, who received a shaving cream pie to the face immediately afterward courtesy of Ovechkin. “Getting three goals and we won, to win the game — this is awesome.”
It was a wild game from the start. Perreault again was filling in on the top line for Nicklas Backstrom, out since taking an elbow to the head Jan. 3. Rookie forward Cody Eakin also scored for Washington. Unfortunately, a Perreault hooking penalty late in the second period allowed the Bruins to tie the game at 3-3 when Brad Marchand scored a power-play goal at 17:42.
Rich Peverley opened the scoring at 17:46 of the first period for Boston. After the Caps went up 2-1 thanks to Eakin and Perreault tallies, Tyler Seguin beat goalie Tomas Vokoun (29 saves) following a disastrous defensive-zone turnover by Caps defenseman John Carlson. That goal at 12:21 of the second tied the game at 2-2.
The Caps (26-19-3, 55 points) jumped to third place in the Eastern Conference playoff race heading into the NHL All-Star break, which begins Thursday in Ottawa. Ovechkin must still sit out games Jan. 31 at Tampa Bay and Feb. 1 at Florida (22-15-11, 55 points). Washington took over the Southeast Division lead again from the Panthers, who lost to Philadelphia 3-2 in a shootout on Tuesday. Boston (31-14-2, 64 points) leads the Northeast Division and has the conference’s second-best record entering the break.
“We’re missing two of our top scorers with [Backstrom] and [Ovechkin]. And [Mike Green] — three of them,” Caps forward Matt Hendricks said. “For [Perreault] to step up and play like he has the last two games, it’s great. Hard work is paying off.”
Perreault’s first goal was a redirect of a perfect pass from teammate Alexander Semin. His second was a breakaway after stealing the puck in the neutral zone. The third came at the tail end of a dominant shift when he slammed home a rebound off a Roman Hamrlik shot. Dennis Wideman added the empty-net goal with 26 seconds left.
“We have a really good team even without [Ovechkin],” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “We all looked at the roster at the beginning of the season and said this is a good lineup, up and down, top to bottom. Obviously he is our number one guy. But with [Perreault] stepping up, that’s the kind of player he is, a first- and second-line guy. When he’s in that position, a lot of times he’s going to score goals.”
