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Sturm, Chara rally Bruins past Capitals

Mar 9, 2008 - 4:27 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- A lack of discipline cost the Washington Capitals.

Marco Sturm and captain Zdeno Chara each scored power-play goals in the third period as the Boston Bruins rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Capitals on Saturday.

Alex Auld made 23 saves and David Krejci and All-Star Marc Savard each had two assists for the Bruins (36-25-7), who snapped a three-game winless streak and moved into a tie with the idle New York Rangers (35-24-9) for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

With Washington holding a 1-0 advantage, the momentum changed with 6:41 left in the third period. Donald Brashear delivered high-sticked Krejci before delivering a left cross to defenseman Shane Hnidy's face, which resulted in six minutes in penalties.

"I admit Brash's penalties were dumb," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "A guy that's been in the league that long should know that. Overall, we're one of the most penalized teams in the league."

The result led to a pair of 5-on-3 advantages for Boston.

"Sometimes that's how it goes," Brashear said. "You can't lose your focus and you can't lose your cool. He was coming at me and I guess I lost my cool a little bit. It's an emotional game, and during the game, you throw a few hits and scream back and forth, but it wasn't worth it."

"This is a playoff game," Boudreau added. "The ramifications of this game are great. You've got to be on top of your game - the players, the coaches, the referees - and I don't know if everybody was today."

Capitals defenseman John Erskine received a hooking penalty 73 seconds later to give the Bruins a two-man advantage on which they capitalized.

"Go look at the other penalties and tell me what you think," Boudreau said. "You can't say anything because it's their decision. You go look at it and tell me what you think, I'd like to know. We're arguing that we don't think they're penalties."

Chara tied the contest at 1-1 with 5:01 remaining, when the All-Star defenseman unleashed a slap shot from the high slot that sailed over goaltender Cristobal Huet's right shoulder.

"It seems we were a little tight, to be honest," Chara said. "It's obvious (that) when you're losing, you don't feel as comfortable. But I have to give a lot of guys credit. We handled it well, and now we have to keep going. We have to keep playing like we did tonight."

After Washington defenseman Tom Poti was sent to the box for slashing, giving Boston another 5-on-3 advantage, Sturm fired in a sharp-angle rebound to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead with 2:16 left in the contest.

"We talked about it before the 5-on-3 to give us that play across, and (Krejci) showed great patience," Sturm said.

The Capitals' 10-2 embarrassment of the Bruins last Monday set the tone for a fight-filled opening to this matinee.

Just five seconds in, the Capitals' Matt Bradley and Bruins rookie Milan Lucic dropped the gloves for a fight that lasted some 30 seconds.

"It wasn't going to be the same game as the last time," Auld said. "Obviously, they beat us 10-2 in their building, and we're coming off a tough one last game against the (Maple) Leafs, and we wanted to set the tone early. I didn't know they had that planned, but I liked it."

With Bradley and Lucic just getting comfortable in the penalty box, Brashear and Shawn Thornton squared off, also at center ice, 14 seconds into the contest.

"Those were definitely not pre-planned," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We needed to go out and establish a presence, and that's the way it happened. We got pushed around the last time in Washington, and today we were ready for whatever happened."

"We need to have good energy right from the beginning of the game," Chara added. "The whole (TD Banknorth) Garden was full of energy and we had really good jump after that."

But after tempers cooled down, it was the Capitals that opened the scoring when Brooks Laich knocked in a rebound at 6:17 of the first period after All-Star Alex Ovechkin's initial shot from the left faceoff circle and rebound chance were stopped by Auld.

Huet turned aside 26 shots for Washington (32-29-8), which fell six points behind Philadelphia (35-26-8) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East and seven back of Carolina (37-29-5) for the top spot in the Southeast Division.

"It's anger right now, and you have to watch what you say," Boudreau said of his team's emotions. "We're angry that we lost a game we thought we should have won."