Viktor Arvidsson scored the game-winning goal at 4:28 of the third period, leading the Boston Bruins to a 3-1 win over the visiting Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon.
Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm also scored, David Pastrnak dished out two assists, and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves for Boston, which has won three of five since the Olympic break and has a 12-game home win streak.
The teams traded second-period goals before Arvidsson lit the lamp. After Hampus Lindholm started the play making a steal at the defensive blue line, Mittelstadt sprung Arvidsson to snap off the deciding goal on a breakaway.
The remainder of the third period featured little breathing room for Boston, but Elias Lindholm clinched the victory on an empty-net goal with 23.2 seconds left.
Aliaksei Protas scored the lone goal and Logan Thompson stopped 27 shots for Washington, which lost its third straight after having veterans Nicolas Roy and John Carlson traded in recent days.
Boston had a 30-23 advantage in shots. Boston went 1-for-6 on the power play, scoring the lone goal for either team across nine total man advantages.
The teams played to a scoreless first period despite three combined power plays. Swayman made the biggest save at the 10:54 mark to help Boston make its first kill, turning aside Tom Wilson’s point-blank shot off a Connor McMichael transition feed.
Just after Thompson made back-to-back stops on an oncoming Pastrnak, Zacha gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead when he took Charlie McAvoy’s seam pass to the net front and batted in a rebound for a power-play goal 4:02 into the second.
The visitors did not play from behind for long as Protas netted a rebound to tie the game at 7:21. Jakob Chychrun danced around his defender on the wing and put on a close-range shot that created a second chance out front.
Thompson made a key save to keep the game level at 1-1 minutes later, batting away a Casey Mittelstadt shot before Fraser Minten could corral the puck and shoot it into an open side of the net as the trailer on an odd-man rush.
