In the heavy weight tilt of the day, the Washington Capitals went to Boston and handed the Bruins a 3-2 loss after the skills portion of the event.
The Caps needed a goal from T.J. Oshie to force the extra session; he scored with 59 seconds left on the clock in regulation.
“I think it means we’re doing some things right,” Oshie said. “Obviously, we played most or all the game being down a goal, but we just stuck the course tonight, which was good to see. Obviously, a tough loss last night, we weren’t really going except for maybe a couple guys, so it’s nice to see us respond tonight and play to the very end, that’s what it took.”
Braden Holtby got the win on 21 saves, and was off the ice for the tying goal.
Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak scored for the Bruins.
“You want two points. You take all the points you can get, but we want to be able to shut the door when we get the lead like that that late in the game,” Coyle said. “And especially for your goaltender, he played so well, you want to end things on the right note for him. He kept us in the game.”
Jakub Vrana was credited with the deciding goal in the skills.
“We have a lot of great shootout players, and you know I’ve been watching them and obviously learning from them,” Vrana said.
Travis Boyd also scored for the Caps, he was called up from the Hershey Bears of the AHL earlier in the day.
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Bruins highlights]
Jaroslav Halak made 42 saves in the loss.
“He (Halak) was our best player by far,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Disappointing that we couldn’t finish it because I thought our third period, we really bought into what we needed to do compared to the Florida game, for example (a 5-4 shootout loss Nov. 12). We didn’t give up much at all. … But I liked that we really backed [Halak] up in that third period, but in the first and second, yeah, he made a number of outstanding saves and again in the shootout.”
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