Bruins respond to head shot with 5-1 victory over Capitals

BOSTON -- — With Brandon Carlo heading to the hospital in an ambulance, the Boston Bruins got back at the Washington Capitals the best way they could.

Brad Marchand had two goals and an assist, and the Bruins responded to a head shot from Capitals forward Tom Wilson with a three-goal second period to beat Washington 5-1 on Friday night.

“Put the fight aside, the guys came out with four goals (in a row) there,” said Tinordi, one of two Bruins to fight Wilson after the hit on Carlo.

“How close this group is, I’m not surprised to see the boys respond in a big way after one of our guys goes down,” said Tinordi, who was playing just his second game with the Bruins since they claimed him off waivers from Nashville. “You can’t have guys taking liberties with our players out there.”

Two days after Alex Ovechkin slashed Trent Frederic in the groin, the game again took an ugly turn when Wilson smashed Carlo’s head into the glass with 90 seconds left in the first period.

No penalty was called.

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Carlo went to a hospital in an ambulance. Asked if it was a concussion, Cassidy said: “You can probably make your own call on that, considering the hit was directly to his head.”

“Defenseless player, predatory hit from a player that’s done that before,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know why they didn’t call it on the ice. It’s out of our hands after that, we’ve just got to play hockey.”

Both Frederic and Tinordi fought Wilson, but the real revenge was the scoring.

Frederic scored Boston’s second goal — the first after Wilson’s hit — and Patrice Bergeron had a goal and an assist for Boston. Nick Ritchie also scored, and Jaroslav Halak stopped 31 shots.

Nicklas Backstrom recorded his 700th career assist, setting up Jakub Vrana to spoil Halak's shutout bid with six minutes left in the game. Vitek Vanacek stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced before he was pulled with 4:17 left in the second period and the Capitals trailing 4-0; Ilya Samsonov made six saves on seven shots the rest of the way.

During his eight-year career with the Capitals, Wilson has been one of the most penalized — and most suspended — players in the NHL. He is 10th among active players for penalty minutes, trailing only those who have been in the league five or more years longer than him.

He was not made available for comment after the game.

Carlo went down late in the first period after Wilson went hands-high to his head in the corner behind the Boston net. Carlo absorbed a cross-check from Vrana on his way to the ice and remained there for several minutes.

The music went silent in the empty arena, and the Bruins bench could be heard cussing out Wilson. When Carlo finally got to his skates, the only noise was his teammates banging their sticks against the boards.

Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said he thought the hit was clean.

“His feet were on the ice. He stayed down with everything,” he said. “It just looked like a hard hit in the corner. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but to me it looked like just a hit.”

RINKSIDE CHAT

When the teams came out for the second period, Bergeron skated over to Wilson as he stretched out and spoke to him. Ovechkin skated by to monitor the situation, as did an official.

Bergeron declined to say what was discussed.

“I'll just keep that on the ice between us,” he said.

Players began shoving each other after the next whistle, and Brenden Dillon was sent off for roughing in a transparent make-up call. With about six minutes gone in the period, Tinordi and Wilson dropped their gloves.

Thirty seconds later, Frederic deflected a pass right past Vanecek to make it 2-0. Midway through the period, Bergeron converted on a pass from Pastrnak to make it 3-0.

With five minutes to go in the second, Matt Grzelcyk sent a cross-ice pass to Marchand, who was perched at the side of the net to easily shove the puck in and make it 4-0.

David Krecji connected with Ritchie cross-ice with about a minute gone in the third made it 5-0, and then Frederic and Wilson went at it off the ensuing faceoff. Frederic picked up a minor for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct.

“Responding isn’t always dropping the gloves,” Bergeron said. “It’s also about how we play, how we react, and I thought it was a solid game all around for everyone. We were kind of doing it for Brando, he’s obviously a big part of out team.”

NO. 700

Backstrom is the 54th player in NHL history with 700 assists.

“I said I was going to enjoy it and here we are, losing 5-1,” he said. “It’s tough when you lose a game like this and the way we played too. Hopefully we can get a win next game so I can think about it more.”

UP NEXT

Washington: Visits Philadelphia on Sunday night.

Boston: Hosts New Jersey on Sunday night.

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