Capitals Beat Leafs 2-1 (OT), Take Series 4-2

Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 (OT) in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal on Sunday night. The Capitals advance to the second round of the playoffs and will face the Pittsburgh Penguins beginning this week.

Braden Holtby got the start in goal for the Capitals. Frederik Andersen got the start in goal for the Maple Leafs.

Karl Alzner missed his 4th consecutive game due to an upper body injury. He remains listed as “day-to-day”. Nate Schmidt replaced Alzner and once again was paired with John Carlson.

Chandler Stephenson, Paul Carey, and Taylor Chorney were the healthy scratches for Game 6.

QUICK NOTES:

Capitals and Leafs played a scoreless first 20 minutes for the first time in the series.
The Capitals were outworked at the faceoff dot for most of the game.
The game went to overtime for the 5th time in six games.

FIRST PERIOD:
The first period would go scoreless. This was the first scoreless opening frame of the series. Toronto outshot the Capitals 14-10 for the opening frame. Alex Ovechkin had a game-high four shots in the first period. Toronto once again won the battle at the dot, winning 67% of the faceoffs. The Maple Leafs led in hits 18-13.

SECOND PERIOD:
The second period would also go scoreless. The Maple Leafs outshot the Capitals 14-11 for the middle frame and led 28-21 through two periods of play. Hits were 32-28 in favor of Toronto through two periods of play. 5v5 shot attempts were 20-20 for the second period and 44-35 for the game in favor of Toronto through the first two periods.

THIRD PERIOD:
Auston Matthews would notch the game’s first goal with 12:15 left in regulation. The setup came from a crazy bounce off the boards directly to the wide-open Matthews.

Marcus Johansson would tie the game with a goal at the 12:49 mark of the final frame.

The Equalizer. #CapsLeafs #RockTheRed pic.twitter.com/kPdRsrNu1V

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 24, 2017

John Walton’s call:

The third period would end with the game tied 1-1. Washington outshot Toronto 10-9 for the third period. The Maple Leafs led 37-31 through three periods of play.

OVERTIME:
Marcus Johansson would win it in overtime.