Washington Capitals come from behind to beat Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Washington Capitals come from behind to beat Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5. Here is the game summary and highlights.

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

Nazem Kadri put the Maple Leafs on the board with a power play goal at 6:39 of the first period. Kadri has four goals in his last seven games.

Connor Brown gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead at 11:44 of the first period. Brown has goals (2) and points (4) in consecutive games and has registered eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) over his last six games.

Frederik Gauthier scored Toronto’s third goal of the first period at 18:06 of the frame. Gauthier has three points (2 goals, 1 assist) since his first recall of the season on Dec. 19 from the Toronto Marlies (AHL).

Leo Komarov scored the fourth goal of the night for the Maple Leafs on the power play power play at 13:33 of the second period. Komarov has goals (2) in consecutive games.

Mitch Marner earned an assist on Kadri’s first period goal and later scored the fifth goal of the night for the Maple Leafs at 11:08 of the third period. Marner has goals (2) in consecutive games and has six points (2 goals, 4 assist) over his last six games.

James van Riemsdyk registered the primary assist on Kadri’s first period goal and added a second assist on Marner’s third period goal. He has assists (4) in three consecutive games.

Zach Hyman had the primary assist on Brown’s first period goal. Hyman has assists (6) in five consecutive games.

Auston Matthews recorded an assist on Brown’s first period goal and later added a second assist on Komarov’s second period goal. Matthews has 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) over his last seven games.

Connor Carrick had the lone assist on Gauthier’s first period goal. Carrick has assists (2) in two consecutive games.

William Nylander recorded the secondary assist on Komarov’s second period power play goal. Nylander leads the Maple Leafs in power play points (15) and has nine points (2 goals, 7 assists) over his last 10 games.

Tyler Bozak had the secondary assist on Mitch Marner’s third period goal. Bozak has two points (1 goal, 1 assist) over his last three games.

Frederik Andersen stopped 25 Capitals shots in tonight’s game.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs were outshot by the Capitals by a 29-25 margin.

Washington had a 56-50 edge in shot attempts.

James van Riemsdyk led the Maple Leafs with six shots on goal and nine shot attempts.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The Maple Leafs are 7-6-6 on the road this season.

Toronto’s all-time record is 60-66-10-4 in 140 games against the Capitals and 23-42-4-3 in games played in Washington.

Toronto is 11-6-3 against the Eastern Conference this season and 3-3-2 against the Metropolitan Division.

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

OF NOTE…

Auston Matthews was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for December prior to tonight’s game. Matthews had points in nine of his 12 games in December and led all rookies in scoring for the month with 12 points (8 goals, 4 assists)

The Maple Leafs scored three first period goals for the fifth time this season. Toronto leads the NHL with 40 first period goals.

Toronto allowed a first period goal for the first time in seven games.

The Maple Leafs surrendered a power play goal for the first time in six games.

Toronto is 3-8-2 in games where their opponent scores first.

The Maple Leafs are now 11-1-5 when leading after one period and 13-1-6 when leading after two periods.

Toronto has a 11-4-3 record when outshot by their opponents.

Maple Leafs rookies combined for eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) in tonight’s game. Toronto’s rookies had combined for 136 points (52 goals, 84 assists) in the Maple Leafs’ previous 36 games.

Four Maple Leafs (Nazem Kadri, Leo Komarov, William Nylander and Roman Polak) started 20 percent of their faceoffs in the offensive zone, which was the lowest percentage of all Toronto skaters.

Tyler Bozak won 80 percent (4 won, 1 lost) of his faceoffs in the defensive zone.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Friday, Jan. 6 at New Jersey Devils, 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, FAN 590)

Saturday, Jan. 7 vs. Montreal Canadiens, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Friday, Jan. 13 at New York Rangers, 7:00 p.m. (TSN 4, TSN 1050)

Saturday, Jan. 14 at Ottawa Senators, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Tuesday, Jan. 17 vs. Buffalo Sabres, 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On tonight’s game:

I didn’t think we were very good tonight, to tell you the truth. I didn’t think they were very good. I think they had a good first period push, we responded a bit in the second period but we weren’t very good defensively, we didn’t skate like we can, we didn’t play like we can. In lots of ways we got a point here tonight and getting a point on the road when you’re not very good doesn’t happen very often. We’re all in it together though, right from the goaltending to the D to the forwards, we were all in it together. Not very good.

On if the team played differently in the third:

No. I’m going to say it again; I don’t think that had anything to do with it. I thought we were playing the same way the whole game – not good enough, not competitive enough, didn’t execute. They scored two goals in the third period on total D zone breakdowns. All we’ve got to do is stop and talk to one another and execute. To me, that doesn’t have much to do with what time in the game it is, it has to do with doing your job. We weren’t good enough.

On moving past tonight’s loss:

I just think we’re in a situation here where tomorrow we can have an off-day and we can get regrouped, we’ve had lots of things going on here. We got away – I don’t want to say that – but we’ve had a good run here on the road, I think that’s six games in a row we’ve got points in, five of them we’ve won, if I’m not mistaken. I said to you earlier you can’t often get points on the road if you don’t play right, you don’t play well. Tonight I thought our power play was good enough but we weren’t good enough. We played 20 minutes in the middle, other than that we didn’t play.

FREDERIK ANDERSEN (25 SAVES)

On giving up six goals:

We all know we can play a lot better defensively and I think we’ve got to be able to keep doing our jobs and keep playing the way we want to defensively when we have the lead. We can still go at them, it’s tough and the defensive zone has got to be a point.

On giving up the lead in the third:

There were probably some missed assignments but I’ve got to be able to make a save here and there and help them out too. A tough one but with the way we played today we can be happy about one point.

CONNOR BROWN (1 GOAL, 19:14 TOI)

On tonight’s game:

Definitely a learning experience. Obviously giving up leads like that twice in the same period, there’s a lot to learn from it. I think when push comes to shove and the game gets tough, we’ve got to continue to make plays and continue to play with our skill instead of slap pucks away.

On if the team plays differently when they have a lead:

A little bit as of late. I think, like I said, we’re not making as many plays and the best way to control a lead is to play in their end and go get the next one. We didn’t do that tonight and it cost us.

On the shift in style when the team has a lead:

Experience is part of it and I think it’s coming. That’s a good hockey team. It’s the second time we played them and they came out hard. We did a good job in the first two periods, you’ve got to give it to them, they create chances well and they finished them but it’s a lot on us as well.

MITCH MARNER (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On giving up a lead in the third:

We’ve got to stop doing this, we left Freddy [Andersen] out to dry there and gave them too many opportunities and too many open nets. I think we’ve just got to help Freddy out and make sure when we get these leads we’re playing the same way and not changing our game.

On his third period goal:

I just kind of saw [Bozak] chip at it and saw two guys go to [van Riemsdyk]. I was hoping he saw me at the last second and he did, chipped it forward, and lucky enough it went in.

On if there’s frustration over giving up leads:

Yeah, I think so. Obviously we’ve had a lot of leads going into the third. Like I said, we need to really make sure we’re bearing down here. We’ve got to learn to win when we’re up and going into the third. It’s all about making sure every game we’re coming in the same way and, if we get the lead, not changing our game.

On the team’s growing confidence:

We all know what we can do in here when we get the puck. At the same time, that’s also a constant. We need to make sure we’re getting the puck clean. I thought tonight we were playing too much of a run-and-gun kind of game and we’ve got to make sure we’re trying to grind more and cycle it. Like I said, we left Freddy out to dry for a couple of those goals so we’ve got to help him out there too.

AUSTON MATTHEWS (2 ASSISTS, 19:41 TOI)

On his assist on Komarov’s second period goal:

I’m just trying to get the goalie to move to one side and put it back on the other. [Komarov] was in really good position, I was just lucky to get it to him there and, stick on the ice, he put it in. It was a nice play by him.

On if the team’s approach changed after two periods:

Yeah, I think so. Like I said, I think we just kind of let our foot off the gas. We’re not playing the way we did to get us that lead in the first place. I think that’s part of the learning experience and the process with a young team. At the same time, it’s not the road we want to go down, it’s definitely the opposite for us. We want to clean that up and make sure we get back on track here.

On frustration over giving up a lead in the third:

It’s frustrating, it’s very frustrating. You want to win these games; this is a tough building to get a lead in the first place. This is a good hockey team and tough building to play in. When you come out like that and you’re able to score a couple, teams are going back and forth, it’s kind of a shootout I guess you could say. It’s unacceptable in the third period to shut it down like that and not play the same way we were in the first place. I’m sure we’ll clean some stuff up on video and we’ll be ready come Friday in New Jersey.