Caps Fall to Leafs in Shootout, 4-3

Back home from their longest road trip of the year, the Caps turned in a strong game for most of Sunday night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Capital One Arena. But in the third period, the Capitals lost captain Alex Ovechkin to an upper body injury early in the period, then lost a two-goal lead late in the frame. They ultimately dropped a 4-3 decision to the Leafs in a seven-round shootout.

After missing on a breakaway attempt early in the third, Ovechkin was tripped by the paddle of Leafs goaltender Erik Kallgren's stick, and he went careening into the left-wing corner boards, his upper body taking the brunt of the collision. He stayed down briefly before rising and skating off under his own power, but he did not return and that's all that is known for now regarding his condition.
"I haven't talked to the trainer yet, so we'll get an evaluation on him," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. Caps winger T.J. Oshie reported talking to Ovechkin after the game.
"I've never met anyone tougher than that guy," says Oshie. "We all hope he's fine. I just talked to him; I think he'll be all right. It's always scary seeing Big Eight go down and lay on the ice. Like I said, he's a tough guy. But if there's anyone I would imagine who wouldn't miss any more time than he needs to, it would be [Ovechkin]."
The Caps practice on Monday at noon at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
Washington started the game in fine fashion against a Toronto team that was playing for the second time in as many nights and was also playing its third road game in four nights. The Caps had the edge in possession in the first period, and Washington made the Leafs feel their bodies in the first frame as well, outhitting the Leafs 23-10 with 10 different Caps laying at least one bodycheck.
The Caps jumped out to their first lead of the season on the Leafs at 5:34 of the first when Oshie struck from the left circle. Anthony Mantha and Lars Eller combined to win a puck battle along the left-wing wall, and Mantha fed Oshie, who ripped a shot to the far side from the left dot, beating Leafs goalie Erik Kallgren cleanly for a 1-0 Washington lead.
Oshie's goal came just seconds after Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek made an excellent blocker save to deny Mark Giordano from the slot.
The Leafs pulled even on Ilya Lyubushkin's second goal in as many games against Washington this season. The defenseman - obtained from Arizona earlier in the season - scored from the top of the left circle at 12:32
In the second period, both teams had goals nullified by coach's challenges. First, Toronto's Jason Spezza had his power-play goal waved off when the Caps successfully alleged that Leafs winger Nicholas Abruzzese was offside on the play.
With a minute left in the second, the Caps appeared to take the lead again when Oshie tipped home an Ovechkin wrist shot from his left dot office. But Toronto claimed that John Carlson made a hand pass along the right-wing half wall about a dozen seconds ahead of the goal. Video review confirmed as much, and the two teams went to the third still square at 1-1.
Just ahead of the two-minute mark of the third, Ovechkin forced a turnover in neutral ice and barreled in with speed on a breakaway. He missed the net with a backhand bid and went hurtling into the boards at a fairly high rate of speed after tripping over Kallgren's stick.
Washington responded to the loss of its captain with a pair of quick goals that gave the Caps a two-goal lead over the road weary Leafs.
First, Martin Fehervary issued a perfect feed to a wide open Lars Eller at the back door to life the Caps back into the lead at 3:32 of the third. Just 68 seconds later, Conor Sheary made a nifty play to send Marcus Johansson into a soft spot in the Toronto defense, and Johansson carried to the cage before slipping a backhander against the grain to beat Kallgren at 4:40 giving the Caps a two-goal cushion at 3-1.
Toronto managed only one shot on net over the next seven-plus minutes as the Caps appeared poised to close them out. But that changed when Ilya Mikheyev scored for the third time in his last two games against the Capitals. Mikheyev circled the Washington zone looking for options, and when he didn't see one he liked - and when the Caps didn't offer much in the way of pressure or resistance - he put a shot through Vanecek's five-hole from the lower portion of the left circle.
The Leafs pulled even on a 6-on-5 goal in the final minute of regulation, Spezza scoring on a goalmouth scramble at 19:02.
"We just started turning the puck over," laments Oshie. "A terrible last eight minutes of the game, or nine, ten minutes of the game there. It's getting pretty close here to where that's not going to cut it. I think we're pretty upset about it."
Washington outshot the Leafs by 4-2 in overtime, got a stellar save from Vanecek on Mitch Marner with just under two minutes left in the extra session, and went on a 4-on-3 power play when the Leafs were guilty of having too many men on the ice. But the Caps' extra-man unit looked a bit lost without Ovechkin; they got a couple of shots from Evgeny Kuznetsov and had another Kuznetsov bid blocked, but that was it, and the skills competition ensued.
Each team scored on its first shot, each team missed the net twice thereafter, and Alex Kerfoot finally won it for the Leafs in the bottom of the seventh shootout frame.
"They scored on an [offensive] zone play, and I thought we could have had better coverage," says Laviolette of the Caps losing their late lead. "And they pulled the goalie, pressed and ended up getting one. We had chances to win it after that, and we couldn't get it done."
After losing 8-1 in Tampa on Thursday and 3-2 in overtime in Florida on Saturday night, Toronto was able to salvage a victory from what looked like a third straight loss.
"It was a real gutsy effort, a gritty effort for the guys to find a way there," says Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. "We didn't have much today; it seemed like we were playing on fumes most of the night. We were encouraging the guys at 3-1 to not accept their fate and keep pushing, and to start with one. A huge goal by [Mikheyev] gets us going there, and the 6-on-5 comes through."