Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Wilson, Oshie lead Capitals to tie playoff series
TORONTO — Tom Wilson and T. J. Oshie each scored two goals, and the Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Wednesday night to tie their first-round NHL playoff series at two games apiece.
Alex Ovechkin added his third goal of the playoffs as the top-seeded Capitals regained momentum with the series shifting back to Washington for Game 5 on Friday night. Braden Holtby made 30 saves.
Zach Hyman, James van Riemsdyk, Auston Matthews and Tyler Bozak scored for Toronto, which was coming off a 4-3 overtime victory on Monday night. Frederik Andersen stopped 22 shots.
The Maple Leafs rallied after the Capitals scored four times in the first for a 4-1 lead. Bozak, who had the winning goal in Game 3, got Toronto within one with 26 seconds left, but Washington held on from there.
The tight finish came after a dominant start for the Capitals.
Oshie got Washington on the board when he capitalized on a Nate Schmidt point shot sent purposefully wide of the net. Ovechkin then was left wide open for a one-time drive on a power play, making it 2-0 at 4:34 of the first.
It was similar to Game 3 when Toronto also went down 2-0 in the first five minutes, but the club was unable to recover this time around. The Capitals added two more goals in the first in a span of
less than three minutes — both by Wilson, a Toronto native.
Moved up in the lineup for Game 4 as Coach Barry Trotz looked for a spark, Wilson first pulled back a Morgan Rielly shot from the goal line after it snuck through the pads of Holtby. He then raced the other way and deflected Lars Eller’s harmless shot from the sideboards past Andersen.
On his next shift, Wilson barreled over Rielly near the Washington blue line and then finished off a 2- on-1 sequence with Andre Burakovsky for a 4-1 lead at 16:04.
Van Riemsdyk scored early in the second on a power play, but Toronto wasted nearly two full minutes of a 5-on-3 advantage.
Washington appeared to go up 5-2 with just under 12 minutes to go, but the goal by Schmidt was waved off on goalie interference. The Caps challenged the play, which saw Nicklas Backstrom get tangled up with Andersen, but the initial call was confirmed.
Matthews scored his second at 12 minutes, but Oshie restored Washington’s twogoal lead 59 seconds later.
SENATORS 1, BRUINS 0
BOSTON — Bobby Ryan scored early in the third period, Craig Anderson stopped 22 shots and the Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins for a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
It was Anderson’s fourth career playoff shutout.
Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for Boston, which had a goal disallowed in the first when Ottawa Coach Guy Boucher challenged and the replay showed Noel Acciari was offsides.
The Bruins, who were winless in four games against the Senators in the regular season, will try to force the series back to Boston with a victory in Ottawa in Game 5 on Friday night.
After back-to-back overtime games, this one remained scoreless until 5:49 into the third, when Erik Karlsson’s slap shot deflected off Rask to his stick side. Ryan pulled it from his backhand to his forehand and swiped at it as Zdeno Chara dove behind Rask into the crease to try to knock the puck away from the goal line.
The 6-foot-9 defenseman was able to reach out and prevent the first attempt from going in, but Ryan pushed it over the line with his second.
The Bruins pulled Rask with almost 2 minutes left and managed a couple of scoring chances — both from Brad Marchand — but Anderson turned them away.
TUESDAY’S LATE GAME SHARKS 7, OILERS 0
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture each scored two goals and the San Jose Sharks rebounded from back-to-back shutouts in emphatic fashion, beating the Edmonton Oilers to tie their first-round playoff series at two games apiece.
Pavelski scored on a pair of deflections, including one just 15 seconds into the game for the fastest playoff goal in team history, the previously dormant power play scored four times and San Jose held Connor McDavid off the score sheet for the second consecutive game. Now they will try to carry that over into Game 5 in Edmonton on Thursday night.
Patrick Marleau, Marcus Sorensen and David Schlemko also scored for San Jose, Brent Burns had three assists and Martin Jones made 23 saves for his fourth playoff shutout. It all added up to the most lopsided playoff victory in Sharks history and the biggest shutout victory in the NHL in 10 years.