Boston Bruins left wing Brian Rolston (12) celebrates his goal with teammates Dennis Seidenberg (44), Zdeno Chara (33) and Chris Kelly (23) during the third period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals, Monday, April 16, 2012, in Washington. The Bruins won 4-3. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Quick game summary
In the first period, Alexander Semin scored a power-play goal to make it 1-0 Capitals.
In the second period, Rich Peverley scored his 1st goal of the playoffs, only 35 seconds into the period to tie the game 1-1. Alex Ovechkin would come back 13 seconds later and score to make it 2-1 Capitals. Later, Daniel Paille scored his 1st goal of the playoffs to tie the game 2-2.
In the third period, Brian Rolston scored his 1st goal of the playoffs to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead. Later, Brooks Laich scored to tie the game 3-3. Then with a little less than two minutes remaining in the period, Zdeno Chara scored his 1st goal of the playoffs, to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead. The Bruins would hold on and win the game.
At the end of the game, Alex Ovechkin tried to rough up Rich Peverley down in the Capitals defensive zone, as Peverley tried to pin the puck against the boards to kill the game clock. Peverley went back at Ovechkin taking a whack at his leg with his stick which tripped Ovechkin. Nicklas Backstrom then came in and went high with his stick at Rich Peverley's head. That blatant crosscheck to Peverley's head got Backstrom a match penalty and he will have a hearing with Shanahan. This is now two obvious crosschecks to Bruins players heads in this series. First was Ovechkin on Dennis Seidenberg, where of course Ovechkin got preferential treatment as he didn't get fined or anything for that, and now Backstrom for this stupid cheapshot.
Nicklas Backstrom crosschecks Rich Peverley in head
Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner (27) mixes it up with Boston Bruins left wing Milan Lucic (17), next to Bruins' Zdeno Chara (33), of Slovakia, during the third period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Monday, April 16, 2012, in Washington. The Bruins won 4-3. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
In the third period, it looked like he was going to drop the gloves with ex-Bruin Matt Hendricks but Karl Alzner jumped on top of Lucic's back, obviously third man in, and a big scrum ensued. After the scrum, Alzner made a crying gesture at Lucic. Surprisingly Alzner didn't get any penalty for jumping into an altercation.
After the game Lucic was asked about it. "Well, there's a lot of [proof] on my side to show that I'm not a crybaby," Lucic said after the game. "That's a lot coming from a guy I think who's got two roughing penalties in three years, so there you go." Asked whether he felt Alzner was the third man in, an offense that is punishable by a game misconduct, Lucic grinned and chose his words carefully before answering. [Lucic answered] "Yup." Source
More dirty play from the Capitals was seeing Jason Chimera spearing Brad Marchand in the groin region. We're just starting to see the nasty in this series. Game 4 should be a beauty.
Tim Thomas made 29 saves on 32 shots. Thomas is now 2-1 with a 1.47 GAA and a .943 save percentage in the playoffs this year.
Daniel Paille got "The Chain" after the game.
Game notes
The Bruins led the game in hits 58-36, faceoff wins 37-33 and blocked shots 21-15. The Capitals led the game in shots 32-29
The Bruins power-play continues to struggle, going 0-for-5 while the Capitals went 1-for-4.
Zdeno Chara had 1 goal and 2 assists, along with 3 shots, 2 blocked shots and 7 hits.
Dennis Seidenberg had 4 hits and 4 blocked shots.
Milan Lucic led the Bruins with 8 hits.
Onto the next one
The Bruins now lead the series 2-1 and Game 4 is on Thursday at 7:30pm ET.
The Bruins need 2 more wins to end this series and 14 more wins to bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston.
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