Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

The Washington Capitals fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3, in the shootout, Sunday night at Capital One Arena. The shootout loss drops the Capitals record to 44-23-12 (100 points) on the season. They remain one point behind the Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan Division, with one game in hand.

The Capitals opened the scoring with a goal from T.J. Oshie less than six minutes into the contest, but the Maple Leafs would answer less than seven minutes later for the 1-1 tie at the first intermission.

After a scoreless middle frame, the Capitals regained the lead on Lars Eller’s 13th goal of the season and stretched the lead to 3-1 on Marcus Johansen’s 9th goal of the season. The Leafs would answer late in the period to make it 3-2 and would tie it late at 6-on-5, sending the game to overtime.

After a scoreless overtime period, the Maple Leafs would win it in the 7th round of the shootout.

STATS

• NHL box score
• Natural Stat Trick
• MoneyPuck
• Game Score

STARTERS

Vitek Vanecek (20-111-0-5, 2.60 GAA, .910 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the  Capitals. Erik Kallgren (6-4-0-1, 3.48 GAA, .882 sv%) got the start in goal for the Maple Leafs. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:

Scratches: Connor McMichael, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Matt Irwin and Michal Kempny were once again the healthy scratches.

FIRST PERIOD

The Capitals would strike first on a goal from T.J. Oshie (11) at 5:34 of the first period. Anthony Mantha (13) had the lone assist.

The Maple Leafs answered with a goal from Ilya Lyubushkin (2) at 12:32 of the first period. Mitch Marner (62) and Auston Matthews (45) had the helpers.

The period would end with the game tied 1-1.

SECOND PERIOD

The Capitals and Maple Leafs skated to a scoreless draw in the middle frame. Both teams had a goal removed from the scoresheet after the opposing called for a review.

The Capitals lead in shot attempts, 38-29. The Leafs lead in scoring chances, 16-14, and high-danger chances, 5-3. Caps lead in expected goals for 1.03 to .99.

THIRD PERIOD

Alex Ovechkin would leave the game in the early frame after taking a spill into the corner boards. He remained out with an “upper body injury”. More on Ovechkin here.

Alex Ovechkin to the dressing room after going awkwardly into the boards pic.twitter.com/E7FWMvU3Cx

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) April 25, 2022

The Capitals regained the lead on Lars Eller’s 13th goal of the season at 3:32 of the final frame. Martin Fehervary (8) and John Carlson (54) had the helpers.

Moments later Marcus Johansen (9) stretched the Capitals lead to 3-1 at 4:40 of the third period. Conor Sheary (24) and Justin Schultz (19) had the assists.

The Maple Leafs would cut the score to a single goal with a tally from Ilya Mikheyev (20) at 12:36 of the third period. Carl Dahlstrom (2) and Pierre Engvall (19) had the assists.

The Leafs would tie the game at 6-on-5 with a goal from Jason Spezza.

Regulation would end with the game tied, 3-3, sending the game to 3-on-3 overtime.

OVERTIME/SHOOTOUT

Overtime would go scoreless, sending the game to the shootout.

1. Kuznetsov- Good, Spezza – Good
2. Backstrom – no good, Matthews – no good
3. Oshie – no good, Nylander – no good
4. Mantha – no good, Mikheyev – no good
5. Carlson – no good, Marner – no good
6. Johansson – no good, Engvall – no good
7. van Riemsdyk- no good, Kerfoot – good.

SHAVINGS

• T.J. Oshie opens up the scoring to give the Caps a 1-0 lead. That marks Oshie’s 11th goal of the season and the fourth time he scored Washington’s first goal of the game.
• Oshie’s goal was assisted by Anthony Mantha, his 13th assist of the season in his 34th game of the year. That’s one shy of Mantha’s assist total in 56 games last season with both the Capitals and the Detroit Red Wings.