Leafs Come Back Against the Capitals

 

Photo From CBC

Last night the Leafs were in Washington to face Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals in the final road game of the regular season. The Leafs would be without a few regulars in the lineup as John Tavares was given the night off, Michael Bunting would miss the game dealing with a minor injury suffered in the game against Florida, and Timothy Liljegren would miss the game with an Undisclosed injury. Erik Kallgren would get the start in goal for the Leafs and Vitek Vanecek would be in goal for Washington. Now, unfortunately I joined the game halfway through the first period because I honestly lost track of time and when I turned the game on the Leafs were already trailing 1-0 thanks to TJ Oshie who netted his 11^th of the season. So, with ten minutes left in the first period the Leafs would be looking to get on the board and we wouldn’t have to wait long because with a little over twelve minutes played after a mad scramble in front of the Washington goal that saw Nylander be turned aside and Matthews hitting the side of the net, the Leafs would slow things down and regain their composure. Mitch Marner would have the puck behind the net, he would then send a pass over to Auston Matthews in the corner who would send a quick pass to Ilya Lyubushkin whose wrist shot would deflect off a Capitals player before finding the back of the net. Ilya Lyubushkin would set a new career high in goals scoring his second of the season and this game would be tied at ones. For the remainder of the period Toronto at times would be forced to defend for long stretches and with players like Ovechkin and Backstrom on the ice for Washington defending is no easy task, but thankfully the Leafs have Lyubushkin because he was fearless all game and he would willingly step in front of an Ovechkin slap shot in order to keep his team from possibly trailing once again. Toronto would be outshot in the opening frame but thanks to some great defensive play combined with Kallgren playing with a big amount of confidence the two teams would head into the first intermission tied at ones.

In the intermission when the panel was discussing what happened in the first twenty minutes of action Elliott Friedman mentioned that Leaf fans should be concerned with the risk of injury for Lyubushkin when blocking shots or Marner when on the ice for a penalty kill. While I completely understand where Friedman is coming from of course you do not want any of your players getting injured with playoffs just around the corner but at the same time you also want your team to treat game 80 of the regular season the same way they treated game 1 of the regular season because if players began “coasting” through games then bad habits will slide into your game. We all know how tough some news paper reporters or tv analysts are on this team throughout the season and I am sure the coaches do not want to add any fuel to the fire giving the media the opportunity to pounce on their criticism.

Period two would be an interesting one as play from both teams would be even, this period of the game would be interesting because both teams would have powerplays both teams would score on the man advantage, and both would have their goal taken back. First the Capitals would find themselves shorthanded as Tom Wilson would need to serve a tripping minor and as that powerplay was winding down Auston Matthews would enter the zone and slide the puck over to Nick Abruzzese, Nick would send the puck back to the trailing Jason Spezza whose wrist shot would beat Vanecek on the blocker side putting the Leafs ahead 2-1 but Washington would challenge the goal claiming Toronto was offside and sure enough when the replay was shown you saw Abruzzese was half a step over the blueline thus being offside taking the goal off the board. Then late in the second the Capitals would have their turn as Lyubushkin would serve a holding minor, with a little over a minute left the puck would be along the boards and make its way to Backstrom he would send a cross ice pass to the great eight and with Oshie screening Kallgren Ovechkin would send a wrist shot towards the goal that would be deflected in for Oshie’s second goal of the game. However, Sheldon Keefe would challenge the goal claiming there was a hand pass. When the officials reviewed the goal, they went back to the Capitals zone entry, and you would see John Carlson knock the puck forward with his glove meaning the Capitals powerplay goal would be taken off the board. The final one minute and change would run off the clock and both teams would head to their dressing rooms with this game still level at a goal apiece.

As this game entered the third this game had a level of importance with it as Toronto was trying to stay ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning and hold onto second place and at the same time the Leafs are trying to secure home ice for the first round of the playoffs. The thing is Tampa were on the verge of beating the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins who were matched up against the Montreal Canadiens were winning their game which would keep them just one point behind the Lightning for third in the Division.

Leaf fans were likely panicking because within the first five minuets of the third Toronto would find themselves facing a two-goal deficit. The first Washington goal would come three minutes into the frame as TJ Brodie would mistakenly chase TJ Oshie from behind the goal leaving his original man Lars Ellar all alone at the side of the net. Martin Fehervarvy would see Ellar all by himself and his slap pass would be directed in by Lars for his 13^th goal of the season giving Washington the 2-1 lead. Exactly one minute later Washington would score their third goal as the Capitals Conor Sheary would work a give and go with Ryan Johansson and Johansson would go against the grain sliding the puck by the blocker side of Kallgren for his ninth goal of the season. A few minutes later Capital fans would have reason for concern as Alex Ovechkin would head in on a breakaway, he would end up tripping over the Kallgren poke check and slide into the end boards hitting his head and shoulder. Alex would be sent off the ice to be evaluated. He unfortunately would not return, and Washington would play the rest of this game without their captain. With the third period winding down and fear likely setting in for Leaf fans, the Leafs who have shown all season that they have a no quit attitude, and they would begin to climb their way back into this game. With twelve minutes played in the third the Leafs would have possession in the Washington zone Ilya Mikheyev would have the puck and end up doing a lap around their end of the ice while the Capital defenders were watching, waiting for what they thought was going to be a drop pass but instead Ilya would drive towards the goal and his wrist shot would beat Vanecek on the short side and Toronto would now only trail this game 3-2. With the Leafs trailing by just a single goal they would continue to press for the equalizer but Vanecek to his credit made some phenomenal saves keeping his team in the lead. In the final minute of regulation, the Leafs would pull the goalie going with a sixth attacker as a last stich effort to try and tie this game and send it too overtime. With the Leaf net empty and play in the Washington end Mitch Marner would send a centering pass to Auston Matthews but his shot would be turned aside. Ilya Mikheyev would gather up the rebound and from behind the net send the puck out front to where both Rielly and Spezza were standing and thankfully for the Leaf fans in attendance and those watching at home Jason Spezza would jam in the lose puck for his 11^th goal of the season tying this game up at 3-3, the remaining seconds would expire and overtime would be needed to decide a winner. The single point awarded to the Leafs was huge for them. As I mentioned the Leafs magic number for home ice at the start of the third period was three, well that single point brought it down to two.

The overtime was a thrilling one and fans thought it would be over quickly as Auston Matthews thought he had the game won but his shot would end up ringing off the cross bar. Washington would have a few opportunities of their own, but Kallgren would make some key saves continuously giving his team a chance. Washington however would be given an excellent opportunity to possibly end this game as Toronto would get called for Too Many Men, their 14^th too many men penalty on the season. Thanks to some great defensive play and a cool calm collected Kallgren in goal the Leafs would manage to kill off the bench minor and three on three overtime would expire, and we would need a shootout to finally decide who won this game and the extremely valuable bonus point.

 

The shootout would open with both Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jason Spezza scoring for their respective teams in round one. For the next six rounds we would see a goalie duel as shooter after shooter would be turned aside. The final round, round fourteen would open with Washington’s Trevor Van Riemsdyk missing the net on his attempt and Toronto would send Alex Kerfoot for their attempt with the hopes of ending this. Kerfoot would come in with speed and his shot would beat Vanecek between the pads and Toronto would complete the comeback and win this game by a score of 4-3, and with the win Toronto needs just a single point from their remaining two games against either Detroit or Boston to secure home ice for the Leafs for the opening round of the post season. As we know Michael Bunting did not play this game but some good news this morning it was reported that Bunting’s injury is not serious, and he should be available for game one. The next game for our Leafs comes tomorrow night against the Red Wings I want to let everyone know that there will not be a write up for that game because I will be watching that game in person, in fact I won’t likely do a write up for the Friday night game against Boston but instead I will be back Saturday with a playoff preview because by then we should know who Toronto’s first round opponent will be.

 

Thanks as always for reading.