The Washington Capitals had plenty of motivation to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight: a) a win would move them ahead of Boston in the Wild Card race therefore allowing them to avoid the juggernaut Florida Panthers in the first round, b) a win could also so vault the Caps ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins into third position in the Metropolitan and a date with the New York Rangers and c) revenge for the 7-3 ass kickin’ the Leafs handed them back on April 14.
Pre-game #80 for the Leafs brought out a couple of surprises primary of which was the “load management” resting of Captain John Tavares. Michael Bunting and Timothy Liljgren also sat as did mystery man Jake Muzzin. Erik Kallgren was back in the net.
The Capital One Centre was jumping, fuelled by the news of a Pittsburgh loss to the Flyers earlier in the afternoon. TJ Oshie satisfied their lust with a beauty off the side boards to beat Kallgren over his left shoulder. The Leafs went on a tear later in the period with a ton of sustained O-Zone pressure that led to Ilya Lyubushkin’s deflection off a Caps defender to tie the game. Auston Mathews (103 pts) and Mitchell Marner both got on the scoreboard from that play. A late period PP threat by Washington was thwarted through excellent plays by Lyubuskin and goaltender Kallgren.
Two real nice goals were called back (legitimately) during the second – one by Jason Spezza, which would have been his 500th career road point and one off a nice “Ovie to Oshie” combo. Coach Keefe finally moved Nylander up with Mathews in Marner and that created some nice chances. Kallgren was solid throughout for the Leafs and he made some key saves among his 21 stops for the game to date.
Alexander Ovechkin started off the third with a breakaway steal. Seconds later he was crashing in to the end boards and rolled around in pain for the next several seconds. Off he went to the “dark room” He did not return. I only give this much ink to a rather routine play because Ovie has 780 goals – third all time.
Lars Eller put the home team out front off a wonderful tip in from Carlson at the 3:30 mark. Not two minutes later, Marcus Johannson came off the side boards to place a lovely backhander in for the 2 goal lead. Just as Leafs Nation was losing hope, Mikaev did a complete lap to bury a five hole (his 20th) to make things close. Coach Keefe pulled Kallgren with 1:50 left and the swarming Leafs got their payoff with the tying goal from Jason Spezza to officially record his 500th road point with 57 seconds left.
3 on 3 overtime solved nothing, even though the Leafs took their 14th too many men penalty near the end of overtime. Seven rounds of shootouts end when Kerfoot buried one to allow the Leafs a 4-3 victory and 3 points on their road trip.
HOPPER NOTES: with just 2 games left, is Mathews just racking his brain on the 60 goal thing ? …TML were outplayed all night by the Caps 4th line – why ? …gotta keep that TJ / Gio pairing together – they had a couple of rough shifts, but who did Keefe have out there for that final 4 on 3 ? …
CHEERS. Family time is so precious – Cherish it !
That was a big time effort after a tough night in Florida.
That first shoot out goal by the Caps was a joke.
There should be rules preventing that nonsense.
Must maintain forward motion or something like that.
It was an embarrassment to the game in my opinion.
Spezza had a great night..
I am concerned about Matthews.
I don’t think he is 100% heading into the playoffs..
I don’t like Willie on the top line.
They need more grit up there.
Bunting is a big loss..