WASHINGTON: Braden Holtby made 26 saves to help the Washington Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Holtby lowered his NHL-best goals-against average to 1.83 and improved to 20-4-1. He has allowed three goals in his last three games, making 35 saves in a 2-1 victory at Tampa Bay on Saturday night and 44 in a 4-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Monday night.

Michael Latta opened the scoring in the first period and set up John Carlson’s second-period goal.

Washington’s Tom Wilson was hit with a late match penalty, and Bobby Ryan scored for Ottawa on the power play with 4:14 left

Eastern Conference-leading Washington has won three consecutive games and four of its last five. Ottawa has dropped three of its last four games.

Bruins 3, Penguins 0: Tuukka Rask recorded his 30th career shutout as center Max Talbot, left winger Jimmy Hayes and center Ryan Spooner provided the offense in the Boston Bruins’ 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden on Wednesday.

Rask had 34 saves as the goaltender now trails Tim Thomas by one for third place on the Bruins’ all-time shutouts list. It was the fourth perfect game of the season for Rask, who has nine consecutive games with a point, going 7-0-2 during that span.

Boston (17-9-4) has won three of its last four games and improved to 4-4 in December.

Jeff Zatkoff made 25 saves in net for Pittsburgh (15-12-3), which lost its third game in a row and has dropped five of its last six.

Zatkoff started in place of the injured Marc-Andre Fleury, who suffered a concussion during Monday’s game and will be sidelined one to two weeks.

The Penguins failed to earn their first win under new coach Mike Sullivan, who replaced fired Mike Johnston on Sunday.

Sullivan, who played and coached in Boston, suffered a 4-1 defeat against the Washington Capitals on Monday in his debut on the Pittsburgh bench.