Boston, Massachusetts - The Boston Bruins are now only one win away from advancing to the next round after handing the Washington Capitals a big beating on Friday night.

The Bruins were the first team in their playoff series against the Caps to finally have a breakout game, winning 4-1 and taking a 3-1 series lead in the NHL Eastern Division's first round.

Both teams were locked into tight battles during the first three games of their series. Their matchups during the regular season were split at four wins each so naturally, each win was likely going to be a close one anyway. In fact, each win in this series was by just one goal in sudden-death overtime.

Game four on Friday night was a different story.

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Brad Marchand (33) broke the scoreless tie with a power-play goal at eight minutes into the second period. Apart from that, the game was still pretty close.

Then came the third period with David Pastrnak scoring his own power-play goal just a half-minute into the action. Charlie Coyle followed up with another goal 34 seconds later to set the Bruins up comfortably with a 3-0 lead. The Caps finally responded with a power-play goal by Alex Ovechkin to break the shutout, but Matt Grzelcyk added an insurance goal late in the game to seal the win for Boston.

Charlie McAvoy helped out in a big way with three assists for the Bruins, while goalie Tukka Rask earned his 54th playoff victory, making him the new franchise leader in wins by a goaltender.

The Capitals go back to the drawing board, hoping to at least avoid getting eliminated on home ice. Washington might have won the first game in this series, but having now given up three straight games, the Bruins have all the momentum going forward.

Boston needs just one more win to clinch it and move on to face either the Penguins or the Islanders next week.

Game five is on Sunday in Washington DC.