With Alex Ovechkin back in their lineup for the first time in just under six weeks, the Capitals came into Toronto and rolled to a 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Logan Thompson turned in another stellar performance in net with a 35-save effort, including several key stops to maintain Washington’s lead in the back half of the contest. The Caps’ reconfigured bottom six figured prominently in the scoring, and special teams were also a plus in the win.
As for Ovechkin, he iced the game with an empty-net goal at 16:37 of the third to complete the scoring. The goal is No. 869 of his career, putting him 26 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky (894) for the all-time NHL lead.
“We scratched and clawed tonight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It was a little rusty. You could tell coming out of the [holiday] break the first couple periods were not the way we drew it up. We sort of found some goals, we grinded, got some big saves, and then the third period was our best period. We really clamped down there, did some good things, obviously had a few hiccups, and LT made a couple big saves.”
Less than two minutes after Toronto’s John Tavares started the scoring with a deflection of a Simon Benoit point shot, the Caps pulled even on Andrew Mangiapane’s eighth goal of the season. Hendrix Lapierre picked off a Toronto pass in neutral ice, sending Mangiapane back into Leafs ice. From the left dot, he threaded a shot through Leafs goalie Matt Murray to square the score at 1-1 of the first.
Just over four minutes later the Caps jumped in front on a fruitful and extended offensive zone shift. The reunited trio of Nic Dowd between Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh worked the puck around the Toronto zone, and it created some shifting of bodies as well. When Jakob Chychrun dipped down toward the right circle, partner Trevor van Riemsdyk drifted to center point. Washington moved the puck across the top of the Toronto zone and back again, with van Riemsdyk teeing up Chychrun for a one-timer from the right circle. Chychrun’s drive beat Murray on the short side to lift Washington to a 2-1 lead.
When the red light went on, four of the five Toronto skaters had been on the ice for at least 56 seconds; three of them had been on the ice for more than a minute.
“[Carbery] talks about that a lot,” says Chychrun, “holding onto pucks in the [offensive] zone and wearing them down and creating chances off that. That's something every team tries to do it, but being able to execute a couple times, and catching them on a long shift, it’s always good. It's good. It opened up a lot, and we really capitalized.”
With less than five minutes left in the first, Thompson made a dazzling save on William Nylander in a 1-on-1 situation to preserve the lead. Thompson gloved down Nylander’s shot from point blank range on a shot virtually everyone in the building believed was in the net; the press box television feed briefly flashed “GOAL” across the screen and changed the score bug to incorrectly reflect a 2-2 score.
Just ahead of the midway mark of the middle period, the Leafs drew even when Bobby McMann took a Max Domi feed and scored off the rush at 8:20. Again, the Caps answered quickly against the Leafs, who played on the road the previous night.
Less than two minutes after the tying goal, the Dowd line turned in another solid offensive zone shift to restore the lead. Mangiapane changed with Duhaime, and the former fired a shot from the high slot that was blocked. Ex-Leaf Rasmus Sandin collected the loose change fired a sublime feed to Dowd on the weak side, and Dowd netted his ninth of the season at 9:53 to make it a 3-2 game. This time, all five Leafs on the ice had been out for more than a minute.
Washington killed off the game’s first penalty late in the second period to nurse that one-goal lead into the third period, then snuffed out another Toronto power play in the third. Thompson made big stops on Nick Robertson, Tavares and Pontus Holmberg in the first six and a half minutes of the third to quell Toronto’s uprising, and just after the midpoint of the final frame, Mangiapane put the Caps on their only power play of the game, drawing a hooking call on Jake McCabe.
The Caps didn’t waste the opportunity. Dylan Strome made a boss play to strip Chris Tanev behind the Toronto net, then fed Chychrun at center point. The defenseman let a shot fly, and Tom Wilson tipped it home from the top of the paint, giving the Caps a 4-2 cushion with 7:24 remaining.
Leafs coach Craig Berube pulled Murray for an extra attacker with 4:21 remaining, and Ovechkin’s empty-netter – an easy tap in after Aliaksei Protas sent the captain into Toronto ice all alone – came less than a minute later.
Asked if it was the easiest of his 869 NHL lamplighters, Ovechkin responded thusly: “Every game, every goal is hard to score in this League. So if you want to try, take the skates and go out 6-on-5.”
Carbery had his captain’s back, too.
“I will say this,” begins the Caps coach, “everyone talks about empty netters and whatnot, but I've seen some of the best defensive players play. Scoring on the empty net, a lot of coaches put their best offensive players in those situations because they can anticipate where the puck is going, and that's a prime example right there.
“[Ovechkin] knew Pro was going to get that puck, and so he knows he can ice the game right there. Those are the benefits of having maybe not – quote, unquote – a defensive specialist, but highly intelligent offensive players playing 5-on-6, and he's as good as it gets when it comes to empty netters.”
