CAPITAL IDEA
LEAFS STREAK ENDS.
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 National Hockey League’s 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 first-period collision with Washington’s Wilson.
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.
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 fivegame road trip, is now 17-3-2 against the Atlantic Division this season.
Toronto finishes out the regular season with home games against Tampa Bay on Thursday, Pittsburgh on Saturday and Columbus on Sunday.