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Capitals' Win Streak Ends
Brian Willsie scores past Bruins goalie Tim Thomas to get the Caps on the scoreboard late in the second period. (Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)
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Earlier in the day, Ovechkin was named offensive player of the week for the second time this month. With three goals and four assists in the Capitals' three victories last week, the 20-year-old Russian joined Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk and Carolina's Eric Staal as the only players to earn the honor twice in 2005-06.
Dainius Zubrus centered Ovechkin's line despite leaving Saturday's game with an arm injury. Halpern also returned to the lineup after missing the previous three games -- and seven total -- because of a sprained knee. But the Capitals again were without defensemen Jamie Heward (lower body injury) and Steve Eminger (ankle).
The Bruins, meantime, were significantly short-handed. Both of their regular goaltenders, Andrew Raycroft and Hannu Toivonen, were out with injuries. Defenseman Brian Leetch and first-line forwards Alexei Zhamnov and Glen Murray were also sidelined.
But it didn't seem to help the Capitals any -- particularly early, when the Bruins dominated play at both ends.
Washington trailed 1-0 after the first 20 minutes -- and were extremely fortunate it wasn't much, much worse. Boston outshot the home team 13-4, testing Johnson several times from point-blank range. Johnson turned away all except one, a splendid individual effort by Primeau, who shed Halpern behind the net, skated out front and banked the puck off the far post.
Primeau got his second goal by redirecting a long wrist shot from Nick Boynton past a screened Johnson at 10:29. At 16:37, Boston's Brad Boyes outraced Capitals defenseman Bryan Muir to the net, where he tapped in an awkward bounce off the end boards to stretch the Bruins' lead to three.
The Capitals finally got something going at 18:34 of the second when Willsie banged in a pass from Pettinger to make the score 3-1.
"We gave up that goal late in the second period and that kind of gave them life," Bruins Coach Mike Sullivan said. "The scoring chances they did get in the third period, I thought Timmy was there to make the save when we needed him, and for the most part we continued to do the things that brought up success the first two periods."
