BOSTON (AP) — Jakub Vrana scored the lone goal in the shootout and the Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Zdeno Chara’s return, spoiling Tuukka Rask’s bid for his 300th career victory.
Lars Eller also scored for the Capitals, who improved to 7-1-1 in their last nine games. Vitek Vanecek made 18 saves in regulation.
The 43-year-old Chara, the Bruins’ captain his entire 14 seasons with the club, signed a one-year contract as a free agent with the Capitals during the offseason. He helped Boston win the 2011 Stanley Cup, and was a key part of its runner-up teams in 2013 and 2019.
David Pastrnak scored for Boston and Rask stopped 27 shots.
Elsewhere on NHL ice:
— Jonathan Marchessault goal in the second period was the winner, Marc-Andre Fleury made 36 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Minnesota Wild 5-1. Vegas swept the two-game set against Minnesota and remained atop the West Division, one point ahead of the St. Louis Blues. Alex Tuch, Mark Stone, Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson also scored for Vegas. Fleury improved to 11-3-0 and has limited teams to two goals or fewer in 10 of his 14 appearances.
— Jordan Binnington made 27 saves and the St. Louis Blues scored on all three of their power plays in a 3-2 victory over the skidding Anaheim Ducks. Oskar Sundqvist, Brayden Schenn and Zach Sanford each had a goal for St. Louis, which is 6 for 10 with the man advantage against Anaheim this season. St. Louis has won all four meetings against the Ducks this year and six of their last seven dating to last season. Max Comtois and Rickard Rakell scored for Anaheim, which is 0-6-2 in its last eight games.
— Mikko Rantanen scored twice and had two assists as the Colorado Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 4-0. Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves for his 14th career shutout and the Avalanche got payback for a 6-2 loss Monday night in San Jose. Gabriel Landeskog added a goal and three assists for Colorado, which went 3-1 on its road trip and pulled into a three-way tie for third place in the West Division with Arizona and Minnesota.
— Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz scored power-play goals in the second period, and Antti Raanta made 40 saves in the Arizona Coyotes’ 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Johan Larsson scored 13 seconds after Schmaltz’s goal, and the Coyotes snapped a two-game skid by hanging on in the final minute of their only road game in a 27-day span. Drew Doughty scored a power-play goal and Jonathan Quick stopped 20 shots for the Kings. Gabriel Vilardi added a goal in the third, but the Kings took a late penalty and couldn’t get a last-ditch equalizer.
— Jimmy Vesey scored twice, Frederik Andersen made 26 saves in his return from an injury and the NHL-leading Toronto Maple Leafs completed a three-game sweep of the Edmonton Oilers with a 6-1 victory. John Tavares and Zach Hyman each had a goal and an assist, and William Nylander and Ilya Mikheyhev also scored to help Toronto improve to 18-4-2. The Maple Leafs outscored the Oilers 13-1 in the three games, winning 4-0 on Saturday night and 3-0 on Monday night. NHL scoring leader Connor McDavid was held without a point for the Oilers.
