Ovechkin rocket ends Leafs’ streak
Toronto closing in on third place in Atlantic Division
WASHINGTON • Well, the Washington Capitals were’t going to call it Maple Leafs Rookies Night.
Or Wild ’ N’ Crazy Night. Or Third-Period Blown Lead Night.
Instead, on Tuesday at the Verizon Center, it was Canadian Heritage Night, one of many theme nights the club is hosting this season. A certain Russian ended it. Alex Ovechkin blasted a one- timer past Frederik Andersen at 22 seconds of overtime as Washington won 6-5.
If you want excitement, the Leafs have been providing it in buckets in 2016-17, with the skilled freshmen getting lots of ice and opportunity.
Along with that, however, are the things that come with a team learning on the fly.
The Leafs had a 4-2 lead entering the third period, lost it, took a one-goal lead again, lost that and wound up losing in overtime.
The Leafs have at least one point in nine of their past 10 games. The loss snapped the Leafs’ five- game winning streak and ended their fivegame road winning streak.
Toronto, with 42 points, is two points behind Boston for third place in the Atlantic Division.
The Leafs went up 5- 4 when Mitch Marner scored at 11:08 of the third period, slipping the puck between the legs of Philipp Grubauer.
Nothing was predictable on this night, and so it went that the lead didn’t last long. John Carlson tied the game at 13:55, putting the puck into an open net after most Leafs had lost track of it.
The Capitals haven’ t gained a reputation as one of the better teams in the NHL by accident and given the Leafs’ third-period woes of late, it was not a complete shock the home team rallied to tie the game in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
In fact, the Caps needed less than four minutes to erase a 4-2 Leafs lead to start the third.
At 2: 20, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored from the slot and at 3: 39, it was Dmitry Orlov pumping a one- timer past Andersen.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock then called a timeout, a move that appeared to calm his players down.
On the same day he was named the NHL rookie of the month for December, Auston Matthews had two more assists.
The second drew gasps from the crowd and in a nice touch, came at the end the Leafs’ dads were sitting in.
Matthews slipped a pass to Leo Komarov after tricking most in the building to believe he was going to carry the puck out the other side.
Grubauer had no i dea what Matthews had done, but Komarov was ready, and lifted the puck into the net. Washington defenceman Brooks Orpik didn’t find it funny when Komarov tapped him on the shoulder after the goal, as if to say, “Don’t worry, he blows us away, too.”
That assist by Matthews, naturally, was his 34th point of the season, matching his uniform number and putting him clear of half the total Peter Ihnacak recorded in 1982- 83. It’s notable because Ihnacak’s 66 points that season are a Leafs rookie record. Unfortunately for Ihnacak, his name won’t be in the team record book much longer unless Matthews suffers a season-ending injury.
There wasn’t much room on the ice in the first period, but the Leafs wiggled through and came out of it with a 3-2 lead.
In the process, they chased Capitals star goalie Braden Holtby, something that no team had done previously in 2016-17.
The Capitals got on the board first, when a point shot by Orlov during a power play deflected off the skate of Justin Williams and into the net past Andersen at 1:14. It was the first power play goal allowed by the Leafs after they killed off all 22 in the previous five games.
The Leafs responded in kind to Williams’ goal. At 6: 39, Kadri poked the puck past Holtby after James van Riemsdyk had attempted something similar.
And at 11: 44, Connor Brown rifled a shot over Holtby’s catching glove to give Toronto a lead.
T. J. Oshie tied the game with exactly four minutes to play in the period when his high shot eluded Andersen, but the Leafs again went ahead by one when Frederik Gauthier scored his second NHL goal.
It was made possible on a pass, or perhaps a fanned shot, by Connor Carrick.