Bruins Crush Capitals

The Washington Capitals came crashing back to earth on Day 61 in a 7-2 loss to the Boston Bruins. The game featured a bizarre incident in the first period that led to the opening goal. Washington falls to 12-15-3 with the loss.

After a relatively uneventful 10 minutes of play, Boston's Brown went to the box for elbowing at 10:15 to give Washington a power play. One second later it was 1-0 Bruins as Havlat scored his 10th of the season from Kutlak and Brown. Yes, Brown somehow earned an assist from the penalty box. Just over six minutes later the Capitals tied the game through Patrick Marleau from Frantisek Lukes and Jonathan Cheechoo.

Boston regained the lead early in the second period when Connolly scored from Havlat and Brown at 0:15, but the Caps tied it up again just 1:28 later. Todd Warriner got the goal for Washington from Bryan Berard and Rob Blake. The Bruins didn't waste much time taking the lead again as Kaberle scored from McDonald and Hecht at 8:14 to make it 3-2. After Washington failed on two power plays, including two full minutes of a 5-on-3 advantage, Rolston scored his fifth of the season for Boston to open a 4-2 lead. McEachern and Goren assisted on the goal.

The Bruins continued to pour it on in the final period, making it 5-2 when Havlat scored from Tkachuk and Hedican at 1:19. Less than four minutes later Johnson netted on the power play from Guerin and Kaberle, and just 22 seconds after Johnson's goal, Guerin completed the rout from Johnson and Hecht at 5:37.

Peter Skudra struggled in goal, stopping just 15 shots in the loss. Manny Legace made six saves in relief. Andrew Raycroft stopped 32 shots to earn the win.