WASHINGTON -- After watching his top line get outplayed in Tuesday night's loss to the New York Islanders, Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz issued a challenge and the results were impressive.

Top line center Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and two assists, winger T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Boston Bruins 5-3 at Verizon Center, snapping Boston's three-game winning streak.

"They responded. I actually talked to them before the game today," Trotz said. "I knew that they could be better. They should be a dynamite line every night and they were. Tonight, they made a statement."

First-line winger Alex Ovechkin gave Washington a 3-2 lead late in the second period on a power play, and Brett Connolly made it 4-2 at 3:29 of the third when he scored against his former team.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, named the NHL's "First Star" of the month for January on Monday, put Washington up 5-2 with 4:07 remaining to go along with an assist. He has six goals in his last seven games.

"Very important for us to come back and have a good game," Oshie said. Everyone was playing fast, not a lot or turnovers. All in all, a pretty good game on the second night of back-to-backs."

Braden Holtby made 29 saves for the NHL points leaders. Matt Niskanen added two assists for the Capitals (34-11-6), who have won eight straight versus the Bruins.

Brad Marchand scored two power-play goals and had an assist for Boston (26-22-6), and David Krejci -- filling in for Patrice Bergeron on Marchand's line -- scored with 1:31 left to play. Marchand, the NHL's "Second Star" of the month for January, has 23 goals on the season and six in his last four games.

"I think it's pretty obvious. Some guys have to step up and give us some offense here," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Our power play's good, scoring goals, but 5-on-5 we have to be better. You can't just rely on one line to score your goals every night."

David Pastrnak had three assists and Tuukka Rask, playing the second night in a row, stopped 17 shots.

"It's disappointing, especially when we battled back from a 2-0 deficit," Marchand said. "We were playing pretty good. It's tough to get down by a few there after you made a pretty good comeback."

Bergeron took a slap shot off the right leg in the third period, returned briefly and then left again. Update to come. The Bruins said they will update his condition on Thursday.

The Capitals have won eight straight at home, outscoring the opposition by a combined total of 40-12 during the streak.

Washington took a 1-0 lead at 3:06 when Backstrom threaded a pass between two Bruins and sent Oshie in on a breakaway. Oshie didn't miss as he put a low shot between Rask's pads for his 19th of the season.

"I don't get breakaways. I'm not fast enough," Oshie joked after the game.

"I knew Nick was going to be able to get that puck through those two guys to me so after that I kind of glanced back a little bit and saw I had some time, so I slowed down just a little and tried to turn it into almost like shootout pace."

Backstrom made it 2-0 at 13:34 of the period. Rask made a pad save on a blast from Niskanen, but Backstrom banged home the rebound from the slot.

Boston cut the deficit in half on a power play. Patrice Bergeron fed Marchand in the slot and he fired over Holtby's shoulder with 1:14 left in the first.

Early in the second period, Boston got another power play opportunity when Kuznetsov was called for tripping in the offensive zone.

The Bruins cashed in on a pretty tic-tac-toe passing sequence as Pastrnak sent the puck across ice to Ryan Spooner, who fed it to a wide-open Marchand on the doorstep. Marchand tapped it in to tie the score at 2:49 of the period.

It appeared the teams would enter the third period tied, but with Boston's Brandon Carlo off for holding, Ovechkin wristed a shot past Rask from the left circle for his 25th of the season with 15 seconds remaining in the second.

NOTES: Washington RW Justin Williams missed Wednesday's game because of a lower body injury. The team said he is day-to-day. ... Capitals C Evgeny Kuznetsov was named the NHL's "First Star" for the month of January, the league announced Wednesday. Kuznetsov tied for first in the NHL with 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in 15 games in January. ... Bruins LW Brad Marchand was named the league's "Second Star" for January. He led the NHL with 11 goals and added nine assists for 20 points in 14 games. ... Washington re-assigned D Christian Djoos to the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL). ... Boston recalled G Zane McIntyre from the Providence Bruins of the AHL and assigned G Anton Khudobin to Providence.