The Washington Capitals skated to a team record 11th consecutive victory on Tuesday, beating the Boston Bruins 4-1. David Krejci gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead in the first period before the Capitals hit back with four unanswered goals from Mike Knuble, Brooks Laich, Boyd Gordon and Alex Ovechkin. "It's pretty mind boggling," said the Capitals' coach, Bruce Boudreau. "It's a good milestone for these guys and you could see when they got the lead we finally started playing better."
"It's nice to have streaks and stuff," said the Washington defence- man Tom Poti, "but we have bigger dreams and bigger goals." The loss was the Bruins' eighth in succession - their worst run since the 1955-56 season. In Toronto, Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Dion Phaneuf made the most of their Maple Leafs debuts as their new team shut out the New Jersey Devils 3-0 to snap a six-game losing streak.
Giguere finished with 30 saves, becoming only the second goalie in the Leafs' history to record a shutout on his debut. Meanwhile, by the end of the first period the defenceman Phaneuf had landed a big hit, been in a fight and received an ovation from the home crowd. "He's gung-ho, seems to love hockey, and it rubs off on everybody," the Leafs' coach, Ron Wilson, said of Phaneuf. "We could hear him talking in between periods from the coach's office, which is almost two rooms away and three doorways. And you could hear him the whole time in between periods."
"Since I've come here, over the last 48 hours, I really like what I've seen from the rest of the team," said Giguere. "Everybody's really focused. Everybody's working really hard. Tonight, you could tell." Nikolai Kulemin, Phil Kessel and Francois Beauchemin scored for the Leafs. * With agencies
