The Caps opened the game with a stifling defense that held
the Maple Leafs without a shot on goal for the first 10:58 of the game. Despite the early smothering by the Caps’
defense, though, Toronto opened the scoring late in the first period. Tyler Bozak fended off Matt Niskanen long
enough to feed Jake Gardiner the puck at the left point. Gardiner worked the puck to the middle, then
curled through the right wing faceoff circle.
As he tried to maneuver between the hash marks, the puck slid off his
stick, off Jay Beagle’s skate, and onto the blade of James van Riemsdyk. He curled the puck to his forehand and ripped
a shot off the post to goalie Braden Holtby’s left and in to make it 1-0 at the
17:34 mark.
After killing off a penalty that carried over from the first
frame, the Caps scored on a power play of their own less than four minutes into
the second period. Out of a tangle below
the Toronto goal line to the left of goalie Frederik Andersen, the puck made
its way to T.J. Oshie, who fired it out to Alex Ovechkin in the left wing
circle. With all four Maple Leafs
tilting to the right side of the ice, Ovechkin picked his spot and found it in
the back of the Toronto net to make it 1-1, 3:47 into the period.
Washington took the lead mid-way through the period on
another power play. With the second power
play unit on the ice, Andre Burakovsky skated the puck into the zone, worked
around a Toronto defender, and tried to feed Evgeny Kuznetsov cutting to the
net. The puck sailed into the right wing
corner and rebounded to Justin Williams.
From the far edge of the right wing circle, Williams backhanded the puck
to John Carlson at the right point. With
room to step up, Carlson did just that and blasted a slap shot that beat
Andersen on the near side to make it 2-1, Caps, at the 11:06 mark.
Three minutes later, the Leafs tied it back up when Toronto
worked the puck below the Caps’ goal line, allowing Kasperi Kapanen to set up
in front. Matt Martin’s pass found him
at the top of the crease, and with a couple of whacks at the puck, Kapanen slid
it through Holtby 14:25 into the period to make it 2-2.
Then with Dmitry Orlov off on a tripping call, the Leafs
took the lead in the dying seconds of the period. Working the puck around the perimeter on the
right side, Mitch Marner got it to Morgan Rielly at the right point. Rielly carried the puck to the middle looking
for a better shooting angle. He found one, threading a shot through a maze of
bodies in front of Holtby to make it 3-2 with just 13.1 seconds left in the
period.
Toronto nursed the one-goal lead for the first 11 minutes of
the third period, but in the 12th minute the Caps applied steady,
unremitting pressure in the Leafs’ zone and were rewarded for it after spending
more than a minute in their end. Dmitry
Orlov flagged down an attempted clear by Gardiner off the glass at the left
point. He walked the puck back across
the middle, and then he sent a shot to the Maple Leaf net that was muffled in
front. The puck caromed out to the right
of Andersen, where Nicklas Backstrom pounced on it, firing the biscuit into the
open side of the net behind Andersen to tie the game, 3-3, 12:39 into the
period.
Neither team could find the tie-breaker in what remained of regulation
time, and the teams went to overtime for the second time in two games. But things did not end there. After 20 minutes of scoreless extra time
play, the teams went to a second overtime.
And there, in the game’s 92nd minute, the Leafs ended
it. John Carlson lost his stick trying
to separate a Leaf from the puck, and the loose biscuit made it to Brian
Boyle. As he skated behind the Caps’
net, he fed it out the back side to Kasperi Kapanen, who had nothing but an
open net at which to shoot, and he did not miss, giving the Maple Leafs the 4-3
win 11:53 into the second overtime and sending the series to Toronto tied at a
game apiece.
Other stuff…
-- The loss broke a three-game winning streak in overtime on
home ice dating back to May 2013, when the Caps beat the New York Rangers, 2-1,
on a Mike Ribeiro goal.
-- The 51 shots on goal for the Caps was the fourth-highest
number they ever recorded on home ice in a postseason game. All four were losses. The others were a 61-shot effort in a 2-1
three-overtime series clinching loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 20,
2003; a 63-shot game in a four-overtime Game 4 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh
Penguins on April 24, 1996, and the mother of all frustration, a 75-shot
performance in a four-overtime Game 7 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders on
April 18, 1987.
-- Offensive zone faceoffs were a problem all night for the
Caps. They won just 18 of 43 draws in
the Toronto end (41.9 percent). They
were even worse in the defensive end, percentage-wise (33.3 percent, winning 10
of 30 draws). The plus-13 differential
between offensive and defensive zone draws counts as an opportunity wasted,
especially given that the Leafs were playing short a defenseman after the
injury to Roman Polak in the second period, from which he did not return.
-- Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner each skated more than 40
minutes for Toronto, 40:12 and 40:42, respectively.
-- In a game that lasted almost 92 minutes, Alex Ovechkin
skated just 24:35, sixth among forwards, both in total and in even strength ice
time.
-- Only’s…Karl Alzner and Jay Beagle were the only Capitals
without a shot on goal. Beagle did not
record a shot attempt (he was also an uncharacteristic 9-for-25/36.0 percent on
draws). Brett Connolly was the only Cap
not credited with a hit.
-- Matt Niskanen had ten credited hits to lead the
team. He had seven shot attempts, tying
him with Dmitry Orlov and Kevin Shattenkirk for second-most on the club among
defensemen. John Carlson had nine shots
on goal to lead the defensemen.
-- Alex Ovechkin’s goal was his 42nd career
postseason goal, tying him for fifth place among all players since 2007-2008,
when he appeared in his first postseason.
-- It took him a second overtime to do it, but this was the
first time Braden Holtby surrendered four goals on home ice in a playoff game
since he allowed four goals on 28 shots in a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers
in Game 6 of the 2015 Eastern Conference semifinals.
-- T.J. Oshie had a bit of a rough game. He only managed to put one of his eight shot
attempts on goal and lost six of seven draws.
He did have an assist, though, and five credited hits to go along with
it.
In the end…
The Caps have let a lot of opportunities walk up to the door
and knock over the years, without ever getting up to answer the door. As opportunities go, this was not the worst
of them that they let get away, but it was significant. The best home team in the league, playing a
young team down a veteran defenseman mid-way through regulation, let the Leafs
off the hook. There were a lot of near
misses and almosts, but near misses and almosts litter the Caps’ playoff
landscape like confetti after a ticker tape parade. We’ll find out soon enough if this team
really is different from their predecessors, or if they are just a different
model of the same make of car. In that
sense, going on the road is not really a bad thing, home-ice advantage in the
NHL being probably the least reliable home advantage of the major team
sports. But the Caps can’t let the Maple
Leafs skate with the sort of confidence a game like this can provide. They have to take it from the Leafs and stand
on their throats, characteristics that would be different from a lot of their
predecessors at this time of year.
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