Bruins close out regular season with 4-3 SO win over Capitals

The Bruins wrapped up the regular season with a 4-3 shootout win over the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon at Verizon Center. The win gave the B's a regular season record of 39-30-13. The Bruins have locked up the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference and will play the Buffalo Sabres in the first round.

Micahel Ryder (2 goals) and Marco Sturm were responsible for the Bruins offensive production, while David Krejci and Miroslav Satan scored in the shootout. At the other end of the ice, Tim Thomas made 34 saves and threw a few blocker-handed haymakers in a rare start.

Alex Semin put the Capitals up 1-0 2:23 into the game when his shot from the far hash mark of the left circle somehow found its way past Tim Thomas for his 40th goal of the season.

Moments after Semin's goal, Jason Chimera was charging hard to the net and crashed into Tim Thomas. Chimera may have had some help from Jeff Penner, who made contact with Chimera. At any rate, Tim Thomas did not appreciate the visitor stopping by unannounced. Thomas grabbed a hold of Chimera and threw a few punches with his blocker, earning himself a double-minor at 2:43 of the first period.

The Caps didn't have the lead for long before Michael Ryder knotted it up for the B's 5:29 into the game. Milan Lucic had the puck down low and found Ryder in the slot.

Ryder found the back of the net for his 2nd goal of the game and 18th of the season with 5:05 remaining in the opening period. The power play goal was the Bruins first in 8 games. Dennis Wideman's diagonal pass from the right point found Ryder at the left circle and fired a snap shot that got past Semyon Varlamov.

The Caps erased the Bruins' lead 19 seconds later on a goal from Eric Belanger on a slapper from the slot. Belanger fired a one-timer from the slot, which has stopped by Thomas, but the rebound came right back to Belanger, who took another crack at it.

The Caps regained the lead midway through the third period on a controversial goal from Mike Knuble. Mike Green's shot from the point was deflected past Thomas by Knuble. It looked like Brooks Laich interfered with Thomas on the play, but the goal stood.

Marco Sturm's 22nd goal of the season tied it up at 3-3 with 4:18 remaining in regulation. David Krejci's pass from the left wing corner found Sturm in the slot and the veteran winger fired a one-timer.

After a scoreless overtime session, Miroslav Satan and David Krejci scored in the shootout to seal the 2 points for the Bruins.

Notes:

- Tuukka Rask, Zdeno Chara, Mark Recchi, and Patrice Bergeron were all given the day off after the B's locked up the 6th spot in the East.

- Zach Hamill made his NHL debut. Hamill logged 12:08 of ice time and picked up an assist on Michael Ryder's first goal.

- Alex Ovechkin (50 goals) finished one goal back of Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos (51 goals) for the league lead in goals. He also finished 3 points behind Henrik Sedin, who finished the season with 112 points.

- The Bruins are now waiting to see what the schedule will be for their first round series with the Buffalo Sabres.

- Micahel Ryder did his best Phil Kessel impression by padding his stats in a meaningless game. Hopefully "Newf" can build off his performance today in the Buffalo  series.

- Tuukka Rask finished the season with the league lead in save percentage (.931) and goals against average (1.97).

- For more on today's game, check out Japers' Rink