In Boston, the Bruins and visiting Washington Capitals were scoreless heading to the third period.
Vitek Vanecek made 18 saves in the win.
“I thought it was a good game. I mean it was tight out there,” Washington head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You know through probably 50 minutes of the game, the shots were low, the chances were really low, both sides. Defensively, I thought we were good. Offensively, we’ll try to step on the gas a little bit more and they’ll probably say the same thing. It was just one of those games that was tight. You had to play the game that was dealt, and that was the game that was dealt.”
The two teams traded goals to end regulation tied, 1-1.
“We know what we have to do to be successful, and tonight was a perfect example of that against a really good team,” Washington’s Brenden Dillon said. “We had good sticks, we were blocking shots, we were doing the little things that are going to make us successful in playoff hockey.”
Jacob Vrana scored the only goal in the skills competition to give the Caps a 2-1 decision.
David Pastrnak gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with 70 seconds gone in the third period.
“We stayed in the game, which at home you want to push the pace and the tempo, there’s no doubt about that,” Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “So [I’m] not going to sit here and say we’re satisfied, but they’ve got a good team over there, we’ve got some young [defensemen] that have to understand what it’s like to play against big guys, explosive guys, so I thought situationally we handled that well.”
Lars Eller tied it up with a goal five minutes later.
“Guys played hard tonight,” Laviolette said. “It was an important game coming back to Boston for [Chara]. Important for our team, just where we sit, but important for that reason as well. Guys, I think, knew that. I’m really happy for him that we were able to come in and help him out and get a win in his first game back in Boston.”
Tuukka Rask made 27 saves in the loss.
“They compete hard, they’ve got a lot of guys that are physical, they’re a big team,” Boston’s Brad Marchand said. “And we have to play that same way to compete with all those teams and to be the best in our division. We came along as the game went on. We didn’t have our best first [period], but we got through it and … it was a great feeling there in the second and the third. It was a playoff-type game, got a little more physical as the game went on. But that’s what we’ve got to expect every night.”
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