Caps tie it late, top Bruins in shootout

Jakub Vrana scored in the fifth round of a shootout to lead the visiting Washington Capitals past the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Saturday night.

T.J. Oshie tied the game with the goalie pulled and 59 seconds remaining in the third period to force overtime, and Travis Boyd also tallied as the Capitals won for the eighth time in their last 10 games. Braden Holtby had 21 saves.

Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak scored for the Bruins, who suffered their fifth loss in their last six games (1-2-3). Jaroslav Halak shined in net with 42 stops for Boston, which was playing without top-line center Patrice Bergeron, who sustained a lower-body injury Friday night.

Boston went up during the shootout when Coyle tallied on the team's first chance. Nicklas Backstrom equalized for Washington on its third and potentially final chance before Vrana tallied the winner two rounds later.

In overtime, Halak turned away multiple quality scoring chances from Evgeny Kuznetsov to keep the Bruins alive.

All night Halak was under siege from the Capitals, who outshot the Bruins 18-9 in the first period, 12-6 in the second and 11-6 in the third. He got some help in the final period of regulation when Charlie McAvoy caught up to Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway to prevent a scoring chance midway through.

Washington pulled Holtby with 1:20 to go, and Oshie capitalized to force overtime.

Pastrnak put the Bruins up 2-1 in the second period. After starting the play with a forced turnover in the offensive zone, he had a rebound of a missed McAvoy shot bounce to him on the right side of the net. Pastrnak collected the puck and flung it in off Holtby at 3:30.

The Bruins were on the board first at 11:32 of the opening period when Coyle converted a pass from Danton Heinen in front of the net to beat Holtby. The Capitals responded just under three minutes later, when Boyd, recalled from the American Hockey League earlier in the day, scored on a deflection at 14:27.

--Field Level Media