Fast start paves the way as Washington Capitals even series with 5-4 win over the Maple Leafs
TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs got their toughest test yet from the best team in hockey.
Tom Wilson and T.J. Oshie both scored twice and Alex Ovechkin notched his third goal of the playoffs as the Washington Capitals evened the best-of-seven first round National Hockey League series at two games apiece, dropping the Leafs 5-4 in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
Zach Hyman, James van Riemsdyk, Auston Matthews and Tyler Bozak all scored in defeat for Toronto, which made a late charge, while Frederik Andersen surrendered five goals on 27 shots.
Braden Holtby made 30 saves at the other end as the favoured Caps regained momentum with the series shifting back to Washington for Game 5 on Friday night.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock saw the Oilers get throttled 7-0 by the Sharks on Tuesday night and was wary of such an outcome for his team in Game 4. It was apparent that it might just go that way early with Washington popping for a pair of goals in the first five minutes and four before the opening period was done.
Oshie got the first one for the Caps when he capitalized on a Nate Schmidt point shot sent purposefully wide of the net. Ovechkin added the next one when he was left wide open for a one-time blast on a Washington power play.
The script was familiar to Game 3 when the Leafs also went down 2-0 in the first five minutes, but unlike that game — an overtime victory — the club never did recover. While they pulled back within one on Hyman’s first career playoff goal 42 seconds after the Ovechkin marker, the Caps struck again for two more in a span of less than three minutes — both by Wilson, a Toronto native.
The 23-yearold was everywhere on both goals.
Moved up in the lineup for Game 4 as head 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 barrelled over Rielly near the Washington blue line and then finished off a two-on-one sequence with Andre Burakovsky.
Before the series Babcock was asked about the pestpotential of Wilson, who also scored the Game 1 overtime winner, and said: “Nothing against Wilson because he works hard and all that, but he’s not as big a concern as lots of people on their team.”
The Leafs were outshot 15-6 in the first by a Caps opponent that looked far more like the Presidents’ Trophy-winning team most expected.
It was Washington that won the majority of battles and races, those in white sweaters often hogging the puck for long stints in the Toronto zone.
Trotz was expecting his team’s best game yet. For the Leafs conversely, the game proceeded much as Babcock feared it would.
Citing the example of Edmonton and San Jose on Wednesday morning, Babcock said: “One team relaxes and feels pretty good … and they all tell you how great they’re doing and the other team gets prepared.”
Whether that was indeed the case on Wednesday night, his team simply looked nothing like the speedy, skilled group which swiped two of the first three games.