Tyler Bozak’s OT goal puts Leafs ahead in playoff series against the Caps
TORONTO — After snatching Game 2 in double overtime, Kasperi Kapanen said the Toronto Maple Leafs would give the Washington Capitals a run for their money. He was right. Tyler Bozak scored the overtime winner and Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist as the Leafs pulled in front 2-1 in their best-ofseven National Hockey League Eastern Conference playoff series with Washington, winning 4-3 on Monday. William Nylander and Nazem Kadri (two points) also scored for Toronto and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves.
The Ottawa Senators won in similar overtime fashion, also 4-3, against the Boston Bruins, taking a 2-1 lead in that series.
The Leafs dug out from a pair of two-goal deficits in the victory, taking unlikely control of a meeting with the Presidents’ Trophy winners.
Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov all scored in defeat for the Caps, while Braden Holtby gave up four goals on 28 shots with Game 4 ahead on Wednesday night.
All three games so far have been decided in overtime.
The Leafs were hosting their first playoff game in almost four years and coming off an exciting 91-minute double overtime win in Game 2, but it was the Capitals who got the early jump in Game 3. They scored twice in the first five minutes with both goals coming from their vaunted top line of Ovechkin, Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.
Nate Schmidt, who was filling in for an injured Karl Alzner, got the first one started by rushing into the Toronto zone with speed before finding Backstrom crashing the net across the ice. The Swede beat Leafs defenceman Nikita Zaitsev there and stuffed in a shot short side. Zaitsev was playing his first game of the series and first ever in the NHL playoffs after sitting out the opening two games with a suspected concussion.
He came up short again on the Caps second goal, giving just a little too much room to Ovechkin, whose slap shot beat Andersen high from the left faceoff circle.
It was the second goal on two shots to beat Andersen, who had outplayed reigning Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby in the first two games.
Washington looked confident early. But they generated few scoring chances beyond the goals and the Leafs pushed back with Matthews’ first of the series.
The 19-year-old, held without a point in Games 1 and 2, sped through the neutral zone and fired a shot that ricocheted off John Carlson, the face of Schmidt and the body of the Leafs centre before finally hitting Holtby. He stopped the initial shot, but Matthews scored on the rebound.