Photo: X/@Capitals
The Washington Capitals fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1 Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. The loss drops the Capitals record to 36-27-9 (81 points) on the season.
The Leafs opened the scoring midway through the opening stanza with a goal from Mark Giordano and held the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Just 18 seconds into the middle frame, Tyler Bertuzzi made it 2-0, but the Capitals answered just over five minutes later on Nic Dowd’s tenth goal of the season, making it 2-1. The Leafs restored their two-goal lead five minutes later on Connor Dewar’s 11th goal of the season and took the 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Leafs made it 4-1 just over a minute into the final period on Bobby McMann‘s 14th goal of the season. The Leafs made it 5-1 midway through the frame following a turnover behind the Capitals net that led to Tyler Bertuzzi’s second of the game. That would be the final.
LINEUP
Charlie Lindgren (21-12-5, 2.68 GAA, .912 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Capitals. Joseph Woll (10-9-1, 2.96 GAA, 908 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the Maple Leafs. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Connor McMichael — T.J. Oshie
Max Pacioretty — Dylan Strome —Ivan Miroshnichenko
Mike Sgarbossa — Hendrix Lapierre — Aliaksei Protas
Beck Malenstyn — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratches: Forward Sonny Milano (upper body injury), defenseman Ethan Bear (players assistance program), right-wing Tom Wilson (six-game suspension), forward Matthew Phillips, defenseman Vincent Iorio, Center Nicklas Backstrom (hip injury).
1ST PERIOD
Mark Giordano, in his first game back after missing nearly a month with a concussion, opened the scoring at 10:09 of the first period.
Welcome back Mark Giordano! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/N65muSFpoG
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 28, 2024
And that was it for the scoring in the first period. Five-on-five shot attempts were tied 20-20.
2ND PERIOD
The Leafs stretched their lead to 2-o just 18 seconds into the middle frame. Tyler Bertuzzi (17) knocked home Toronto’s second marker from behind the goal.
BEEEEEAUUUUUUUUTYYYYY BANK!!! pic.twitter.com/AKDhdeRkNO
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 29, 2024
The Capitals finally got on the scoreboard on Nic Dowd’s tenth goal of the season at 5:27 of the second period. Nick Jensen (12) and Hendrix Lapierre (10) had the helpers.
Dowdah deflection beauty gets us back in it pic.twitter.com/FmYOX9PR9o
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 29, 2024
The Maple Leafs restored their two-goal lead on Connor Dewar’s 11th goal of the season at 11:38 of the middle frame.
DEWEY’S FIRST AS A LEAF!! pic.twitter.com/sNS0RQAgI0
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 29, 2024
The Leafs held the 3-1 lead into the second intermission. The Leafs also led in five-on-five shot attempts, 24-16 in the middle frame.
3RD PERIOD
TheLeafs made it 4-1 just 1:06 into the final frame on Bobby McMann‘s 14th goal of the season.
BINGO BOBBO!! pic.twitter.com/YvQFoSmnmh
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 29, 2024
Tyler Bertuzzi scored his second goal of the night following a turnover by Trevor van Riemsdyk to make it 5-2.
BerTWOOOOOzzi!!! pic.twitter.com/v5rNXH5sOd
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 29, 2024
That would be the final.
SHAVINGS (via Capitals PR)
- Nic Dowd scored his 10th goal of the season to cut the deficit to 2-1. Dowd has scored in back-to-back games.Dowd has reached the 10-goal mark for the fourth-straight season.
- Nick Jensen recorded the primary assist on Dowd’s goal, his 12th assist of the season. Jensen has tallied an assist in consecutive games and has four assists in his last six games.
By Jon Sorensen
He said they don’t play well against teams with speed :):) No shit. I thought though he was hired b/c he could get the caps to “play with pace” 🙂 I love it.
Don’t be stupid. You can only play with the speed on your roster. If you are the immature type who needs to place blame look at the front office and not the new coach. Good grief.
Yeah, as they say, “you can’t teach speed”. So – we lost to a better team that also played better than us. You’re going to blame the coach?
Well, everybody who’s chasing us lost, so we inch closer to a playoff spot. Flyers lost too, so the Caps are still within striking distance of them.
“Ugly” – doesn’t even begin to describe it. Couple of good plays in the first few minutes, then a couple more scattered throughout, almost nothing in the third. Practically nothing, compared to what Toronto was generating.
Must say, a few really unfortunate bounces went the Leafs’ way in basically every goal after the first. Banked in shot from behind the net – good aim for Bertuzzi, but could’ve gone either way. Third goal – a few bad bounces, and the puck ends up right in front of the net. Fourth goal – went in off Jensen’s skate or leg. Even the last goal – puck was rolling on edge all the way around the net, and these can be tough to handle (think it may have even bounced up when TVR lost control of it).
But in any case, if it weren’t these situations, there were multiple others where the Leafs could have scored, and if needed, they could have cranked it up a notch to get more.
The Caps have to really give it their all, against Boston.