Bruins, Capitals Put on a Show

The Eastern Conference's top two teams met for the final time in the regular season Saturday in Boston, and if the two teams end up meeting down the road in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it should prove to be a very entertaining series.

In a game that featured a bit of style, grit, a flashback to the last meeting of the two teams a little over a month ago and a very strange-looking game-winner, the Capitals beat the Bruins 4-3 in overtime on a 70-foot Alex Semin slapshot that snuck past Tim Thomas.

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With the win, Washington closes the gap with Boston for the top playoff seed in the East to eight points and wins the season series 3-0-1 from the Bruins, and increases its lead to a 15-point edge over Florida in the Southeast. The Caps also stay a pair of points ahead of New Jersey, who pounded the Panthers in Newark in other action this afternoon.

Washington broke on top early on a power-play goal, as Nicklas Backstrom poked in a rebound of a Semin shot past Tim Thomas his 17th goal of the year and an early 1-0 lead, but Boston answered just 1:39 later on a Matt Harwick goal.

But Tim Thomas and Jose Theodore settled down after the early flurry, and both made some nice saves (and got some lucky breaks) to keep the two most potent offenses in the East off the scoreboard for the rest of the period.

Alex Ovechkin finally broke through in the second to put Washington ahead briefly with his league-leading 45th goal of the year with 8:48 gone in the second, but Phil Kessel snuck in and beat Theodore just :18 later.

Once again once the floodgates of offense looked like they might open, Thomas and Theodore traded saves, with Washington's Brooks Laich getting stuffed on a breakaway and then Boston's Scott Thornton getting stoned in deep to preserve the tie.

The tide seemed to turn early in the third, when David Krejci took a hooking minor on Mike Green, and fans saw a nearly identical goal to what decided the two team's last meeting in Boston a couple of weeks back.

In that game back on Jan. 27th, Boston earned a power play in overtime, and while parked along the goal line, Krejci banked a pass off Washington defenseman Shaone Morrisonn's skate and in the net for a 3-2 Boston victory.

So, with Krejci watching from the box, Tomas Fleischmann helped the Caps earn a small measure of revenge for that loss, as while on the goalline, his pass deflected off Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman's skate and past Thomas for a 3-2 Capitals lead 2:20 into the third.

But after Washington failed to build on the lead with Thomas stuffing a breakaway by Eric Fehr and an ensuing power-play, Boston's big defenseman Zdeno Chara helped the B's even the game for the third time on the afternoon. After the Caps got called for some penalties down the stretch, the big defenseman snuck down low and evened the game with 4:37 left in regulation with a bullet past Theodore.

Neither team could dent the twine in the last few minutes, forcing overtime for the seventh of the last 12 meetings between the two teams, and the second straight game in the series.

However, it didn't last long, but Semin wound up from the AirTran ad in the neutral zone and let fly a shot that Thomas didn't quite get a handle on, as it was slowed down but not stopped before it trickled across the goal line just 22 seconds in to give Washington the win to close out the season series.

But, for fans who like entertaining hockey, they hope this isn't the last meeting between these two talented clubs.