Smith scores in double OT, Boston leads series 2-1

BOSTON—Craig Smith scored 5:48 into the second overtime Wednesday night to give the Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals and a 2-1 lead in their East Division first-round playoff series.

Smith outraced Washington defenseman Justin Schultz to a puck behind the Capitals net and swept it around into the goal to end the third straight overtime game in the series. It was the 11th straight one-goal playoff game between them since 1998.

Smith also had an assist, and Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall also scored for Boston. Tuukka Rask stopped 35 shots for the Bruins.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 800th combined regular season and postseason goal, and Nic Dowd returned from a slap shot off the knee to add a goal for Washington. Ilya Samsonov returned from the COVID-19 list to make his playoff debut, stopping 40 shots for Washington, which lost the home-ice advantage after splitting the first two games at home.

Game 4 is Friday night in Boston.

Dowd had to limp off the ice and head to the dressing room after blocking a shot with his right knee midway through the second period. He was back and charging the net when Garnet Hathaway kept the puck in at the blue line and fed him for the goal that made it 2-1 with less than two minutes to go in the period.

But it was Dowd who was called for high-sticking to set up the power play that led to Marchand’s tying goal. The puck bounced from Charlie McAvoy to Patrice Bergeron before Marchand swiped it into the net with 8:28 left in regulation to make it 2-2.

Marchand, who had two penalties in Game 2 before scoring the winner just 39 seconds into overtime, was whistled for the penalty that led to Ovechkin’s goal after the Bruins dominated the scoreless first period.

Boston still had a 15-9 advantage in shots when Ovechkin scored on the power play with 11:39 left in the second. It was his first goal of the series but the 70th of his postseason career, giving him a total of 800 for the regular season and playoffs.

That lead lasted less than a minute before Smith slid the puck to Hall in the slot. After some stickhandling to get Samsonov out of position, he lofted it over the goalie to tie it at 1. á Postives were testing errors: It was game on for the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche after a coronavirus testing scare.

The NHL said it had investigated multiple positive COVID-19 test results from the Blues and Vegas Golden Knights from the same laboratory. The league said the results had “peculiarities and similarities” and found them to be testing errors.

The league said further testing came back “uniformly negative” and all affected players who were initially isolated out of caution and retested were eligible to play. The announcement came only hours before Game 2 between St. Louis and Colorado in Denver.

Go to thestar.com for coverage of the Predators-Hurricanes, Jets-Oilers and Blues-Avalanche games on Wednesday.