Bruins lose to Capitals, 3-1, in New Year's Eve matinee
WASHINGTON (AP/CBS) -- Jakob Chychrun scored his 11th goal of the season to tie for the most among NHL defensemen, and the Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Tuesday.
Chychrun matched Colorado's Cale Makar and Columbus' Zach Werenski. The pending unrestricted free agent is off to a productive start in his contract year, with 25 points in 32 games.
Aliaksei Protas scored twice, including an empty-net goal to seal it with .89 seconds left, and Logan Thompson made 26 saves for the Capitals, who bounced back from a 4-2 defeat Sunday at Detroit. They had more shots in the first 22 minutes than in their entire game at Boston on Dec. 23, when they had a season-low 11 and lost 4-1.
Justin Brazeau scored for the Bruins 81 seconds in off an unexpected carom off the boards and then Thompson. Jeremy Swayman finished with 24 saves.
Boston went without a shot on goal for the the final 8:53 of the second period. The Bruins entered the game ranked 30th in the NHL on the power play, and went 0-for-2 with a man advantage on Tuesday.
Washington defenseman Martin Fehervary left in the third period after taking an inadvertent stick to the face from teammate Tom Wilson.
Takeaways
Bruins: Didn't have their best effort in the first of three consecutive games on the road and could not take advantage of a fortuitous bounce early.
Capitals: Won despite Alex Ovechkin's goal-scoring streak ending at four. Ovechkin had one in each of his first two games back from a broken left leg and also scored twice on Nov. 18 before getting injured and had a hat trick on Nov. 17.
Key moment
With the Bruins pressing with just over seven minutes left, Thompson made a series of saves on high-quality scoring chances to keep the Capitals ahead. He did the same with a big stop with 16.1 seconds left and Boston skating 6 on 5.
Key stat
Ovechkin remains 25 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's career goals record.
Up next
The Bruins visit the last-place New York Rangers on Thursday night, while the Capitals host Minnesota.
