Boston Bruins left wing Taylor Hall (71) scores a goal past Washington Capitals goaltender Craig Anderson (31) during the third period of Game 2 of their Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday in Washington. (AP photo)

The Washington Capitals are hoping age brings them beauty in their best-of-seven series with the Boston Bruins that, tied 1-1, continues tonight with Game 3 at the TD Garden at 6:30.

Yes, the Caps have former Bruins captain and veteran defensean Zdeno Chara

But Washington also has the postseason’s oldest goaltender with 39-year-old Craig Anderson, who has held his own against 2014 Vezina winer Tuukka Rask of Boston entering Game 3 of their first-round series. Edmonton hopes for the same from Mike Smith (also 39) entering its opener against Winnipeg’s reigning Vezina winner, Connor Hellebuyck.

“I think playoff hockey’s a lot about experience,” said Smith, who watched Anderson’s Game 1 win against the Bruins. “You can’t tell a young player what playoffs are like until they’ve actually witnessed it themselves. It’s something that’s unique to a veteran player and a player that’s been in the playoffs a few times over the course of my career.”

Anderson stopped 44 shots Monday in the Capitals’ OT loss to the Bruins that evened their best-of-seven series. It was his first playoff start since 2017 and his third all season.

“As we get older, things become a little bit more difficult, so for Andy, he’s a veteran player,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “He’s been around, and he’s played a lot of games. The one thing that you’d like is to have that rhythm of playing games all the time so that he can keep his rhythm in the net, and he wasn’t afforded that luxury.”

After back-to-back overtime games and nine consecutive one-goal postseason games between Washington and Boston, don’t expect any less in Game 3.

“Once you’ve been in a lot of playoff wars, you feel the good of it, you feel the scars from it,” Laviolette said. “This group, I think, understands a lot. They understand an overtime win. I think they understand an overtime loss. I think for the most part, you realize that the sun comes up the next day.”

TOP PERFORMERS: Marchand leads the Bruins with 69 points, scoring 29 goals and adding 40 assists. David Krejci has two goals and 12 assists over the last 10 games for Boston.

Dmitry Orlov leads the Capitals with a plus-16 in 51 games this season. T.J. Oshie has six goals over the last 10 games for Washington.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bruins: 6-3-1, averaging 3.2 goals, 5.4 assists, 2.4 penalties and 6.2 penalty minutes while giving up 1.9 goals per game with a .919 save percentage.

Capitals: 7-2-1, averaging 2.7 goals, 4.4 assists, 4.3 penalties and 14.2 penalty minutes while allowing 2.1 goals per game with a .919 save percentage.

INJURIES: Bruins: Ondrej Kase: day to day (upper body).

Capitals: Michal Kempny: out (lower body).

OTHER GAMES

PENGUINS 2, ISLANDERS 1

Solid at the start and stoic at the finish, Tristan Jarry turned aside 37 shots as Pittsburgh evened the series with the Islanders on Tuesday night.

Rust and Jeff Carter scored during a dominant first period, and Jarry did the rest to outduel New York’s Semyon Varlamov.

TAMPA BAY 3, FLORIDA 1

A bounce off a Panther. A bounce off a post.

The Tampa Bay Lightning got two big breaks, and they’re going home in full control of their matchup against the Florida Panthers.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots, Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat had first-period goals and the Lightning took a 2-0 lead in their Central Division first-round playoff series.