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CAPITALS 4, BRUINS 3

Bruins clean up their own mess, salvage a point

The Capitals squandered a 3-0 lead before prevailing in overtime.MOLLY RILEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Bruins pulled themselves out of a dastardly early freefall at the Verizon Center Wednesday night, spotting the Washington Capitals three goals in less than 26 minutes, and then found their game once they were staring at a 3-0 deficit.

“Shows the resiliency of our group,” said coach Claude Julien.

“We never changed the way we played,’’ added goalie Tuukka Rask. “We never stopped playing our game, and we got rewarded.’’

The reward was a point, not everything they wanted but far better than what looked like was in store for them in the early going. In the end, a Nicklas Backstrom goal handed the Capitals a 4-3 victory with 1:36 gone in overtime, leaving the Bruins with a 4-0-2 record in their last six games.

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Trailing by the three-spot early in the middle period, the Bruins shut down the Capitals — denying them a single shot on net for a combined 26:27 at one point — and came barreling back to tie, Colin Miller knotting it with a huge slapper on a power play with 8:19 gone in the third.

The night was messy from the start for the Bruins. With only 23 ticks off the clock, the Capitals had a one-goal lead and the visitors were back on their heels.

Justin Williams, cutting left to right on top of the crease with Brandon Carlo trying to rub him out, tipped home the go-ahead strike. The shot came from much higher, off the stick of Evgeny Kuznetsov, and first glanced off Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Then came Williams with his own tip, leaving Rask all but helpless to make the stop.

Rask looked frustrated. The backline looked uncertain. Not a good start.

And it got worse. With only 7:57 gone, Williams was back for another, this time collecting a loose puck in the slot and whipping it by Rask for the 2-0 lead. Again, Kuznetsov was key to the goal, too easily carrying it deep into the zone into the high-percentage scoring area. He lost the puck, the Bruins failed to get a handle on it, and Williams picked up the trash. Capitals, 2-0, with only five shots on net.

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It got better for the Bruins in the second period, but not before it got worse. Only 5:51 into the period, Daniel Winnik finished off a two-on-one break, converting a pass that Jay Beagle threaded by Carlo, and the Capitals looked comfortable with a 3-0 lead.

But a pair of quick strikes by the Bruins, first by Dominic Moore and then by David Pastrnak, cut the lead to 3-2 by the second intermission.

Moore, anchoring the fourth line after the Bruins failed on a power play, tapped a rolling puck over the line after rookie Anton Blidh mashed in a shot from the base of the left wing circle. The puck looked as if it would roll over the line and give Blidh his first career goal, but Moore wanted to make sure.

“It looked like it was going over, yeah,” said Moore, who collected his seventh on the season. “But you can assume nothing there.”

Only 2:25 later, with a minute to go in the period, Pastrnak barreled in from the blue line, fending off Kuznetsov, and slid a top-of-the-crease backhander through Braden Holtby’s legs. It was Pastrnak’s third goal in two games and 16th this season, establishing a career high for the third-year Czech winger.

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“I had a chance in the first period but didn’t score,” said Pastrnak, who had a conversation with backup goalie Anton Khudobin about that first failed bid. “Anton told me if I get another chance, go five-hole on [Holtby]. It worked out.”

The Bruins allowed the Capitals only two shots in the middle period and went into the third with momentum on their side. The Capitals lost key defenseman Matt Niskanen for the night in the first period, when he was buried into the rear boards by, of all people, Patrice Bergeron. A clean, hard competitor, Bergeron is not one to deal out dangerous hits. Niskanen went right to the room and did not return.

“I am sorry the way it turned out,” noted Bergeron. “But I am going for the puck there, not the hit. Even he said to me, ‘No problem, that’s a hockey play.’ But yeah, I am sorry how it turned out.”

The Bruins came into the night with a 4-0-1 mark in their last five games, adding nine of a possible 10 points to their standings total. With three straight wins (Carolina, Buffalo, Florida), the Bruins appeared to be gaining confidence. But not early in Game No. 27.

During a breather at the 10:16 mark of the first period, Bruins coach Claude Julien shook up his defensive pairings, pulling Carlo off his No. 1 shutdown unit and pairing Chara with Adam McQuaid. Carlo teamed with Kevan Miller, his runningmate over 10 days recently when Chara was sidelined with injury. And Torey Krug, normally with McQuaid, paired with Miller.

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It’s rare for Julien to rearrange his lines, particularly on defense, but he needed to do something. He left things alone up front, although the Tim Schaller-David Krecji-David Backes trio was on the ice for both of Williams’s goals.

On the winner, the dangerous Backstrom was alone with the puck in the right wing circle. He held, looked to pass, then ripped the winner by Rask.

“I thought someone was coming backdoor on me,” said Rask, concerned a play was developing to his right while Backstrom unloaded on his left. “That’s not my job, to look for the pass . . . I shouldn’t try that.”


Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.