Capitals down Toronto, snap Leafs’ streak at four

TORONTO — Lars Eller, Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt and Tom Wilson scored as the Washington Capitals cruised to a 4-1 win Tuesday over the Maple Leafs, ending Toronto’s four-game win streak.

Mitch Marner, with his 19th of the season, added a late power-play goal to deny Philipp Grubauer his fourth career shutout.

The Capitals (53-18-8) could have clinched the Eastern Conference title and Presidents’ Trophy on the night. But in addition to beating Toronto, they needed a Columbus win over Pittsburgh and the Penguins — with a 4-1 victory — weren’t co-operating.

The Bruins beat Tampa Bay 4-0 to clinch a playoff spot. Toronto (39-25-15) would have joined them with a win Tuesday.

Washington, which tops the league’s overall standings, has won eight of its last nine.

Toronto, which defeated the Sabres 4-2 in Buffalo on Monday, came into the game having won seven of its last eight.

The Leafs lost centre Brian Boyle during the game to an upper-body injury, which may have come from a hard firstperiod collision with Washington’s Wilson.

The Capitals have fared well against Toronto in recent times, winning seven of their last eight meetings and earning at least a point in 11 of their last 13 games (10-2-1). But their meetings have been tight this season — Toronto won 4-2 at the Air Canada Centre on Nov. 26 and lost 6-5 in overtime in Washington on Jan. 3.

But the well-stocked Caps were in control Tuesday.

With both teams playing back-to-back games, it was a battle of the backups: Toronto’s Curtis McElhinney versus Grubauer.

The Leafs lived dangerously in a fast-paced first period that saw the Caps spend a lot of time in the Toronto end.

Eller, on a sweet feed from Andre Burakovsky, opened the scoring at 14:34 with a shot from near the right faceoff spot that took a deflection off a Toronto skate. One Capital after another was a step faster than their Leaf counterpart on the play.

Washington outshot Toronto 13-3 in a first period that saw 10 Leaf giveaways.

The Leafs came out with considerably more bite to open the second period and pressed the Washington goal. But the Caps weathered the storm and went ahead at the 10-minute mark on the power play via a well-worked passing sequence finished by Shattenkirk, who had a lot of goal to shoot at as McElhinney was forced to move from side to side like a target in a carnival shooting gallery.

It was Shattenkirk’s 12th of the year and first as a Capital. It was also Washington’s 36th power-play goal in their last 40 games.

Alex Ovechkin got an assist on the play, moving him into sole possession of second place among Russian-born players on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.

He came into the game tied with Alexander Mogilny with 1,032 points and trailing Sergei Fedorov by 147 points for first place.

Ovechkin has 60 of those points (33 goals, 27 assists) in 42 career games against the Maple Leafs.

The Caps had a 13-10 advantage in second-period shots.

Washington played a controlled third period with Grubauer mopping up when needed. Schmidt, a late replacement for the injured John Carlson (lower body), added to the lead at 8:11 coming in from the point with little opposition to snap a shot past McElhinney.

Wilson made it 4-0 with a nifty deke at 16:46 after being sent in alone by ex-Leaf Daniel Winnik.

Washington, ending a season-long five-game road trip, is now 17-3-2 against the Atlantic Division this season. NOTES: It was the 100th NHL game for Leafs forward William Nylander.