Far from home, the Washington Capitals found help from an unlikely source on Friday night to beat the Maple Leafs.
With Toronto chasing its fourth straight win late in a tie game, Auston Matthews’ attempt to go behind his own net to organize a breakout hit the skate of referee Corey Svyret and went to the front of the net. Goaltender Anthony Stolarz wasn’t expecting it, but sharp-eyed Connor McMichael pounded on it for the 3-1 winner. Aliaksei Protas added an empty-netter.
Not that the zebra could be pinned as the sole reason the Leafs lost in one of their sloppiest efforts of the season which yielded 21 giveaways and a lack of finish.
That continued through a frenetic 6-on-5 to end the evening at Scotiabank Arena.
Stolarz had to bail his mates out a few times as well as taking stick penalties to end the second period and start the third. In all, the Leafs had to kill off four minors, making it harder to sustain momentum.
Despite some optimal opportunities by Toronto, it was the visitors getting on the board first, Matt Roy’s routine-looking point shot tipped by Nic Dowd in the second period.
Among them was William Nylander stopped on a breakaway, but John Tavares didn’t miss his, on a stretch pass from Chris Tanev. His similar forehand-to-backhand fake on Charlie Lindgren did the trick, while the point moved Tavares past Wendel Clark into the top 20 of franchise scoring with 442 and into a three-way tie for 75th in NHL history with 1,063 with Joey Mullen and Eric Staal.
Earlier in the day, Tavares had said he hoped to keep up his near point-a-game pace in light on not being selected for Team Canada’s 4 Nations Face-off roster this week.
Each team was penalized twice in the first period, almost all of them borderline calls that had players and coaches on both sides grumbling. Yet neither club could click, the Caps failing to register a shot on their initial man advantage and Matthew Knies somehow failing to convert the open net pass from Tavares.
The Caps continue to rank at or near the top offence in the league despite Alex Ovechkin’s broken leg, from which he’s rapidly recovering in astonishing time.
Toronto headed right for the airport and a Saturday date in Pittsburgh, with a record of 3-2 in the second of back-to-backs so far this year and winning the first meeting of the teams in October.
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