Washington’s recent seven-game home winning streak is becoming a distant memory. On Wednesday night against a Toronto Maple Leafs team that played and traveled the night before, the Caps coughed up a two-goal lead late in the third period and suffered a 4-3 overtime setback.
It’s the second straight home loss the Caps have absorbed since their home winning spree came to an end, and both setbacks came at the hands of teams playing their second game in as many nights.
After William Nylander and Mitch Marner scored in the final five minutes of regulation to force extra hockey, John Tavares completed the Toronto comeback with the game-winner at 4:12 of overtime. The Caps needed a pair of video reviews to go their way in order to nullify two other potential Toronto goals in the third, including one in those fateful final five minutes of regulation.
“Not good at all,” began the terse postgame assessment of Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “The way that game played out, it’s just embarrassing, flat out. That’s unrecognizable from our team, playing a team on a back-to-back. The way that looked in the third period, with a two-goal lead – embarrassing on home ice.”
It didn’t start out that way.
After Logan Thompson kept the sheet clean with a couple of early stops in the first, Washington’s Taylor Raddysh opened the scoring just past the midpoint of the opening period, getting a favorable bounce to give the Caps a lead. Raddysh carried down the right side of the ice with speed, curling below the goal line, and throwing a feed to the front for Connor McMichael. But the puck bounded off a backchecking Max Domi and into the Toronto net for a 1-0 Washington lead at 11:12.
Toronto needed only 61 seconds with which to pull even. On a bit of a broken play off the rush, Bobby McMann had the puck come to him in the slot, and he had enough time and space to put it past Thompson to square the score at 12:13.
In the waning minutes of what was a dominant first period for the Caps in terms of possession, the Caps regained their lead on an absolute boss shift from Aliaksei Protas.
With exactly two minutes remaining, the Leafs won a draw in their own end, and endeavored to exit via a high flip. But the 6-foot-6 Protas showed some vertical mobility, jumping up and knocking it down, and the Caps went to work on the forecheck. Protas won a puck battle below the goal line and eventually put the puck to the front for Dylan Strome, who put a little deke on Joseph Woll before tucking it around the right post for a 2-1 Washington lead at 18:33, just 27 seconds after that draw.
Washington dominated possession in the first period, out-attempting Toronto 28-8 in a penalty-free first.
As expected, the Leafs came out with some fervor in the middle frame, but Thompson had the answer for everything sent his way. Just past the midpoint of the middle frame, it appeared as though John Carlson’s center point bomb would increase the Caps’ lead, but the Leafs issued a successful coach’s challenge, alleging that Nic Dowd was guilty of goaltender interference.
For the second time in as many periods, the Caps’ top line managed to light the lamp late. After Toronto turned it over high in Washington ice, Protas took off down the right side on a 2-on-1. He was in a good position to shoot, but he opted for a pass that was broken up. But Rasmus Sandin collected the puck and put it back on the big man’s tape. This time, Protas fired and scored from just above the goal line, improving the Caps’ lead to 3-1 at 17:48, and matching his career best with his sixth goal of the season.
The Caps were on their collective heels for much of the final two periods, and they needed more big stops from Thompson – as well as the positive results from the video reviews – in order to nurse their two-goal lead down to the final five minutes.
A Tom Wilson turnover at the Washington line resulted in the Nylander goal at 15:51, and after the Caps failed on an empty net opportunity, Dowd was boxed for an unwise cross-check in neutral ice at 19:07, giving the Leafs a late 6-on-4 advantage with Woll off for an extra attacker.
With Dowd unavailable to take the draw, the Caps lost the face-off, and five seconds and some crisp passing later, Marner scored to make it 3-3.
“I think it started before the third period, too,” says Sandin. “I think they were putting too much pressure on us, and we didn't handle the puck very well. We didn't break the puck out very well, and it wasn't great from I'd say the second period, or half of the second period, or whatever it was. And then some things at the end there, but that’s what it was.”
Toronto held onto the puck for most of overtime, but again Thompson made some stops to give the Caps a chance. Carlson rang a shot off the crossbar with about 90 seconds left in the extra session, and when Alex Ovechkin wound up and cranked a clapper from the slot in the final minute, trouble ensued. Marner pushed the rebound out of harm’s way, all the way into Washington ice as Tavares galloped after it. He collected it near the right dot, cut to the cage and scored, handing the Caps easily their most excruciating loss on the young season.
“I was just excited about the opportunity,” says Tavares. “I was just trying to get there. I was staring at [Thompson] more than anything, and I was trying to get there as quick as I can, to keep him in the net. I thought maybe he might come out and challenge it, but once you get close to the red line. He was in his crease, so I felt pretty good about it.”
With Wednesday’s loss, the Caps are now 1-7-2 in their last 10 games against the Maple Leafs.
“They just kept working,” says Leafs’ coach Craig Berube of his team. “Pretty much the whole game, I was happy with how we approached it and how we played it. We got behind, but in the second period, from the 10-minute mark on, we started to press and do some real good things in the offensive zone and get some opportunities. And it carried over into the third.”
