Bruins defeat Capitals on late McAvoy goal; Marchand injured

BOSTON-- Charlie McAvoy scored a power-play goal with 45 seconds left in the third period to give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 win against the Washington Capitals at TD Garden on Thursday.

"I thought it was a resilient effort by us. We showed good character, going down two guys up front. ... It's always great to get two points," McAvoy said. "It was a great play by [Jake DeBrusk] to buy time, and I had a feeling he was going to see me. I was able to just get that shot through, and to see it go in, I know I was feeling excited."
David Pastrnak scored twice for Boston (23-12-2), which played the third period without Brad Marchand. Linus Ullmark made 14 saves.
"I thought we were ready to play, much more prepared than Tuesday night (a 7-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes)," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I'm not surprised by the group being ready to go. ... I think we've played Washington well the last few years. ... I was pleased, start to finish. I thought we dug in and played hard. It was a physical game, and I thought we were the better team. ... Clearly thought we played a very good hockey game today."

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller and Nicklas Backstrom scored for Washington (22-10-9). Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves.
Backstrom scored his first of the season with a wrist shot from the slot at 10:17 of the third period to tie it 3-3.
It came 36 seconds after DeBrusk was credited with giving the Bruins a 3-2 lead when Kuznetsov deflected his centering pass through Vanecek's legs. Play continued for 14 seconds before it was stopped and the goal was upheld by video review.
"It was a good forecheck [on my goal]. ... I was just trying to pick a spot, and luckily it went in," Backstrom said. "It was a good battle, I think, two desperate teams that want points. I think we battled until the end. Unfortunately, they scored with 45 seconds left. It would have been nice to at least get a point out of it."
Marchand exited the game with an upper-body injury after the forward was hit by Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway at 6:48 of the second period. He will miss at least the Bruins' next game, against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, Cassidy said Friday.
"You hate to see a guy like [Marchand] go down on such a kind of cheap hit. But that's hockey some nights and hopefully he bounces back," Cassidy said after the game.
Kuznetsov gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 4:07 of the first period with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle.
Pastrnak tied it 1-1 50 seconds later, finishing a give-and-go with Taylor Hall, then made it 2-1 at 8:37 of the second period on a power-play breakaway.

Eller tied it 2-2 at 16:12 with a wrist shot from the left circle.
"The end result is not good," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "We lost the game, and we were there at the end, but didn't get it done. ... I thought the guys played hard. ... It was a tight game. It was physical. It was battle-heavy. At the end of the day, it's tough to lose in the last two minutes of the game."
NOTES: Foward Anton Blidh left the game with an upper-body injury after taking a hit from Washington forward Tom Wilson at 15:27 of the first period. He will miss at least one game. ... Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen sustained an upper-body injury and left during the second period. Laviolette did not have an update. ... Backstrom played his eighth game; he missed the first 28 recovering from a hip injury. ... Kuznetsov scored his 40th point (13 goals, 27 assists) in his 38th game of the season, the fewest games it has taken in his nine-season NHL career. ... Pastrnak has scored 12 goals against the Capitals. He has scored more against the Philadelphia Flyers (19), Tampa Bay Lightning (16), Montreal Canadiens (14) and Toronto Maple Leafs (14). ... Pastrnak has scored 10 goals in 2022, the most of any NHL player. It was his 38th multigoal game; only Marchand has more (42) since Pastrnak entered the NHL in 2014-15. ... McAvoy's goal was the 10th time this season, first for Boston, that a team scored a go-ahead goal in the final minute of the third period. The Buffalo Sabres are the only team to have done so twice.