Capitals: Holtby Blanks Bruins In Galiev’s NHL Debut

 

 

Washington Capitals 23-year-old right winger Stanislav Galiev made his NHL debut as his team fought the Boston Bruins but it was goaltender Braden Holtby who outshined all players on the ice. Holtby’s 27 saves proved to be all that the Caps needed to down the Bruins 3-0 at the Verizon Center.

Before the game even started, the team had a little fun with Galiev. During the warm-ups, he lead the team on the ice and ended up coming onto the playing surface for about 10 seconds before he realized his team was letting him have his moment.

“I knew they were going to do something special. It was fun,” said Galiev on his lone moment. “It was an exciting day for me, obviously a dream come true. I was nervous but after the first shift was over, it was like a normal game.”

At the 4:46 point in the game, defenseman John Carlson received a pass from center Nicklas Backstrom and roofed the puck over Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask’s glove hand.

Just 2:17 later, defenseman Matt Niskanen’s blast from the point got deflected by Boston defenseman Zach Trotman and sneaked in over Rask’s right shoulder.

Late in the second period, a streaking Capitals’ center Evgeny Kuznetsov appeared as though he was going to dash behind the Bruins net, fooling Rask. He then made a great behind-the-back dish to Marcus Johansson. The goals gave the Caps a 3-0 lead.

“Mojo,” as he is known, got his 20th goal of the season on the play. He becomes the third Caps player to score 20-plus goals this season, joining left winger Alex Ovechkin and right winger Troy Brouwer (who got the secondary assist on the play). This is also the first time he has reached 20 goals in his five year NHL career.

“It was an unbelievable play by Kuzy,” Johansson said about his career-high 20th goal. “Scoring goals is fun, but most importantly we won the game and we kept going.”

With the win, Holtby improved to 3-0-0 versus the Bruins this season and 7-2-0 in his career. He has posted three shutouts with a combined 88 saves. The goaltender is now the first in NHL history to shut out Boston three or more times in a single season. No tandem of netkeepers has ever done that as well.

“I saw a really good goaltender making some key saves for us,” Washington Head Coach Barry Trotz said during his postgame interview. “He looked so calm out there.”

“Sometimes the saves pile up and you don’t feel very good and the puck just seems to hit you somehow,” Holtby said. “Some days you’re seeing the puck very well and you feel like you are making the saves the right way and seeing the puck.”

Braden Holtby also ties Olaf Kolzig for most wins in a season by a goaltender. Kolzig recorded his 41 victories during the 1999-2000 season. Holtby could set the season franchise wins record this weekend.

Having already clinched a playoff spot, the Capitals will wrap up the regular season Saturday versus the President’s-Trophy-winning New York Rangers at the Verizon Center. The game starts at 12:30 p.m.