He was their nemesis through two full games and a period. Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas stopped 82 of the first 84 shots the Capitals fired at him this season and at times looked impenetrable.
But in the second period of Friday night’s 5-3 win over the Bruins, it took only eight shots for Washington to net two goals against Thomas. By the end of the period he was pulled from the game. And while the Caps – never ones to make it easy on themselves when a more torturous route is available – gave up three third-period goals to Boston, they eventually earned the two standings points thanks to a goal by rookie defenseman John Carlson with 6 minutes, 35 seconds remaining.
Maybe it’s a good sign that Washington’s players are tired of winning games this way – a near-perfect 40 minutes against a quality opponent followed by a sudden collapse that almost left their handiwork in tatters.
“If we’re going to be a playoff hockey team we have to get over this hump, to get rid of this whole habit,” said Caps defenseman Mike Green, who registered a goal for the third game in a row. “And really that’s the biggest thing that’s affected us through the years. If we can figure a way to hold off teams here and figure a way to play strictly defense when we’re up with a lead like that we’ll be way better.”
Thomas (22 saves, 25 shots) was pulled after the second period in large part because Boston coach Claude Julien wanted to send a message to the rest of his team. Washington starter Michal Neuvirth (11 saves, 14 shots) looked shaky when Boston scored twice on the power play in 55 seconds during the third period. Nathan Horton’s hard slap shot beat him at 4:02 of the third and when Neuvirth nervously looked towards the bench after Shawn Thornton scored on a breakaway at 9:51 to tie it, Caps coach Bruce Boudreau decided to make change.
That call took some guts considering he was turning to a 21-year-old who had yet to appear in an NHL game. But rookie Braden Holtby stopped all four shots he faced over the final 10:09 and earned his first career win when Carlson ripped a shot past Bruins back-up Tuukka Rask.
“[Boudreau] asked me if I was ready to play and I didn’t hear him at first. I was kind of like ‘Pardon?” Holtby said. “I was kind of shocked because it was such a close game. But probably a good coaching move to get the boys going. The momentum definitely changed after that.”
Five different players scored for the Caps, including defenseman Tyler Sloan. He registered his first of the season just 59 seconds into the second period for the first goal of the night by either team. Green followed 6:36 later, taking a beautiful cross-ice feed from Alex Ovechkin, patiently waiting on a Bruins defenseman to go down and flinging a shot past Thomas. Green now has seven points in his last four games.
Alex Semin continued his brilliant play. He made it 3-0 with a short-handed goal late in the second period, starting the play himself by forcing a Boston turnover and finishing a pass from Green at the other end. Ovechkin had a two-point night, including the empty-net goal with 52 seconds left. That came off one of two assists by center Nicklas Backstrom.
But Carlson’s goal was the biggest. After a faceoff win in the offensive zone, forward Eric Fehr pushed the puck back to an open Carlson, who blistered a shot past a helpless Rask. Just like that Washington was back in the win column after a game had almost slipped away again.
“Just a little bit of a cramp in your brain [on Boston’s power plays] and then you take a little hooking call. You obviously don’t mean to,” Carlson said. “But they’re a good power-play team. They took advantage. And for us we were just happy not to sabotage those 40 minutes that we played that were so good.”
