The Bruins may have played better games in their seven-game road losing streak than they did Saturday in Washington, D.C. But results are all that matters at this time of the year and the B’s got the result they needed, finally.

Fraser Minten was the only player to score in a nine-round shootout to lift the B’s to a 3-2 victory over the Capitals and grab two important points in their first road win since Jan. 17.

Jeremy Swayman was excellent, making 25 saves in regulation and overtime and then all nine Capital shooters in the skills competition to complete the season sweep over the Caps. The win was the 26th of the season for Swayman, the most he’s recorded in his career.

It was the start of a three-game trip that will take them to New Jersey and Montreal for a back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday.

“It just one shot at a time. It’s fun to win games like that at this stage of the year,” Swayman told reporters in Washington. “That’s exactly how we wanted to start this road trip off, with a win. We know how big these points are. So no matter how it gets done, that’s all we care about.”

Charlie McAvoy, also having the best season of his career despite all the facial injuries big and small, scored both goals for the B’s, both of which erased one-goal deficits. The B’s never led until Minten’s slick backhander beat Logan Thompson for the win.

“It was just a great fight by us to stay in the game and Sway keeping us in it and making some huge saves. Just resilient,” McAvoy said.

The B’s power-play woes continued as they went 0-for-4, including an anemic 5-on-3 and a PP at the end of the regulation that bled into OT. They are now 4-for-32 on the PP since the Olympic break. But their penalty kill did come up big, killing all three penalties, two of which came in the final six minutes of regulation.

Rasmus Sandin broke a 1-1 tie at 3:12 of the third period. Tanner Jeannot tried to play the puck to himself along the boards but it went right to Sandin, who let a quick shot fly. It appeared that both Jeannot and Elias Lindholm deflected it with their sticks and found the upper corner over Swayman’s blocker arm.

The B’s were given the gift of a 39-second 5-on-3 but they never managed to even get a shot off, turning the puck over several times.

But the B’s tied it on McAvoy’s second goal of the game at 10:09. After the B’s won the puck battle in the corner,  McAvoy went to the net to tip home Pavel Zacha’s point shot past Thompson.

Then things got hairy. Nikita Zadorov was called for boarding with 5:54 left in regulation and, six seconds into the kill, they could have been down two men when Mark Kastelic’s clear went over the glass. It was ruled that it deflected off the kick plate and that was proven to be the right call. The B’s managed to kill off the Zadorov minor.

But then Hampus Lindholm was called for holding Justin Sourdif to prevent a Grade-A scoring chance with 3:20 left in regulation and they were able to kill that as well.

The B’s got a power play of their own on a bad Connor McMichael interference penalty with 1:15 left in the third but they couldn’t capitalize in regulation, nor on the 4-on-3 in OT. Once McMichael came back, there was no stoppage in play so the balance of the OT was played out in a scoreless 4-on-4.

Then Swayman outlasted Thompson in the shootout to nail down the second point.

Bruins coach Marco Sturm made some pretty sizable line changes to start the game, plugging in rookie center Minten between David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie to try and coax more production out of his big guns. Subsequently, Elias Lindholm was dropped to center a third line with Jeannot and Marat Khusnutdinov while Mikey Eyssimont took Jeannot’s spot on the fourth line with Sean Kuraly and Kastelic.

“I thought (Minten) was good,” Sturm said. “They were never really in trouble, that line. They scored a big goal (McAvoy’s first). He was good on net-front there. Overall, I didn’t mind him playing with David.”

Said Minten: “I’ve had reps with those guys at different points through the year so it’s not too tough to fit in there. They’re really elite players and I just want to keep doing what I’m doing.”

The moves didn’t lead to immediate offense for the B’s.

The two teams played a scoreless first period with the Caps getting the better of the chances. Swayman was forced to make several good saves, the best of which was his denial of Timothy Liljegren’s one-timer from the middle of the slot.

The Caps held a 9-7 shot advantage and the hosts were gaining momentum late in the period.

It took Washington just 1:15 into the second period, thanks to a mistake by Khusnutdinov. The young Russian lost his stick and headed to the bench. With the long change in the second, that gave right defenseman Matt Roy plenty of room to walk down from the point and blast a shot off the post and in.

The B’s got their first PP early in the second and it nearly blew up on them. Pastrnak was tripped by Aleksei Protas trying to break out of his own zone and it was egregiously let go by the officials. That eventually led to a clean break-in by Sandin and it looked like he had Swayman beaten. But the netminder extended his right pad for the save and kept it a one-goal game.

Swayman stoned Sandin again at 9:25 when he had an open look from the bottom of the left circle but he couldn’t beat Swayman with the wrister.

The B’s finally got a decent scoring chance when Pastrnak and Geekie had a 2-on-1 with about 11 minutes gone in the second. Pastrnak’s pass didn’t get through but he pounced on the loose puck and forced Thompson to make an excellent pad save.

But they did even it up at 11:57 on an ugly goal from McAvoy. Pastrnak’s pass was not in McAvoy’s one-timer wheelhouse but he manage to send a knuckling shot toward the net. Thanks to a Minten screen, Thompson never saw it and the puck made it through for McAvoy’s eighth of the year.

“This is March hockey, and they’re not pretty goals anymore,” Sturm said. “You’ve got to work for it. They’re all garbage goals, it’s what I call them. If you look at the last three or four games, that’s how we score in this league. We just have to pay the price to go there.”

McAvoy had to get the shot off awkwardly from his front foot, but it landed in its desired destination.

“Maybe just a friendly reminder to myself to just shoot the puck,” McAvoy said.

Like that goal, the B’s game wasn’t pretty. But it worked.