Bruins claw Caps, 4-2

In Washington, DC, the Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman  won his second straight start on Thursday, 4-2, over the Capitals.

“I think my mindset doesn’t change as far as wanting to win and doing whatever I can to help my team win,” Swayman said. “[The] NHL, that’s everything, and it’s a big deal and this team is obviously a good one to be a part of, and I’m just enjoying every second I can while I can.”

Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie scored for the Caps.

“In the second and in the third [periods], we started playing a little more simple out of our zone, a little more simple out of the neutral zone, and we found ourselves in their zone a lot more,” the Caps’ John Carlson said, “and I think that is a mentality thing that we’ve talked about and obviously need to improve on.”

Jeremy Lauzon and Anton Blidh scored first period goals for the Bruins for a 2-0 lead.

Brad Marchand scored shorthanded for a 3-0 lead in the middle frame.

“I think a lot of it I’ve kind of always had. I think the biggest thing that really separates guys from the junior levels to college to the American [Hockey] League to the NHL is being able to translate it to higher speeds,” Marchand said. “I think it might’ve just taken me a little bit of time to be able to do it at this level. But it’s something I work a lot on too.”

Craig Smith scored off the power play in the third period to give the Bruins the 4-2 lead, after the Caps had scored twice.

“You get a really tough bounce off the stanchion for the second goal, so we leave that period and that score,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said. “But what bothers me more about it is the chances that they generated from our execution or doing the right thing as we’re crossing the red line, and then immediately [it] turns back and it comes back into our end, we’re playing defense.”

Ilya Samsonov made 28 saves in the loss.

“There’s not going to be [any] easy games the rest of the way here,” the Capitals’ Brenden Dillon said. “It’s a tight schedule. Whether we’re in two back-to-backs or whatever it is, three in four (days), every team is going through it. We can’t use that as an excuse. We’ve just got to tighten up and get back to the winning ways.”