Bruins Now 2-0 With Jeremy Swayman In Net

The Boston Bruins improved to 2-0 with Jeremy Swayman between the pipes with a 4-2 win over the Capitals on Thursday night in D.C.

Swayman followed up his 40-save debut win by stopping 32 shots in the win over the first-place Capitals.

Swayman pitched a shut out in the first period as the Bruins built a 2-0 lead.

After a quick third goal for the B's in the second, the period quickly went Washington's way. Both Capital goals, which came 19 seconds apart, came on a 5-3 advantage for Washington mid-way through the period.

Washington entered the contest level on points atop the MassMutual East Division with the Islanders. The Isles are in overtime against Philadelphia at the time of this publishing Thursday night, so they leap over Washington for first place within the East through 40 games played.

Pittsburgh, who defeated the Rangers 5-2 Thursday night, are third in the division with 52 points through 40 games played.

Thursday's win in Washington was only the Bruins' 37th game played this season. So while they remain six and seven-or-more-points behind the Capitals and Islanders, respectively, and four points behind Pittsburgh, in the East Division, they have three games in hand over all three teams.

Helping Swayman's cause at the offensive end, it was team goals leader Brad Marchand and a very unlikely pair of first-time goal scorers to lift the B's.

Defenseman Jeremy Lauzon scored his first goal of the season just 33 seconds into the contest. 16 minutes later it was Anton Blidh potting his first goal of the season to double the Bruins' lead.

Marchand's eventual game-winning shorthanded goal came 4:09 into the second period. It was the 19th goal of the season for Marchand, who also has 28 assists for 47 points in 35 games this season.

Craig Smith added his 7th goal of the season with just over three minutes left to play in the third quarter to seal the win for the Bruins.

Swayman is now 2-0 with the Bruins and has stopped 72-of-76 shots for a .947 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average. Those numbers, on top of the 8-1 record and sub-2.00 goals against average that Swayman posted at the AHL level, show just how dominant a start he's had to his professional career.

One other scoring note - Swayman became the 146th different goalie to be scored on by Alex Ovechkin, as Ovechkin continues his climb up the all-time goals scored list with career goal #726.