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Cardiac: Leafs beat Caps 4-3 (OT)

By Peter Hassett

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April 15, 2017 11:37 pm

You didn’t really think it would be that easy, did you? We said this would be a fun series, not a breeze. The Toronto Maple Leafs are too fast and too feisty for that.

Once again, Toronto got the game’s first goal, a JVR score on a broken play. Alex Ovechkin got involved in the offense in the second, notching a PPG from the Ovi Spot. A John Carlson slapshot put the Caps up, but Kasperi Kapanen got a lucky bounce, then Morgan Rielly got a sneaky screened wristshot through to give the Leafs a 3-2 lead entering the third.

It took more than ten minutes in that final frame, but a ferocious shift by the top line finally scored as Nick Backstrom found daylight behind Freddy Andersen to tie the game and force overtime, again.

Overtime was like getting beat over the head by a tube sock full of nickels, but you liked it somehow? Without a decision, double overtime ensued, which is the like the first one except the sock is on fire this time. Then, John Carlson lost his stick and Kapanen ended the night.

Leafs beat Caps 4-3 in double overtime. Series is tied at 1.

  • Fate is a function of flukes. Two Leafs goals came just a blink after an errant puck bounced off a forward’s skates. Each time it was a fourth liner: first Beagle, then Winnik. That first goal, the JVR one, was compounded by Niskanen losing his stick in a collision with the boards and then losing his glove in what I assume was just the universe messing with him.
  • Two goals can seem insurmountable, but the Caps powerplay has been scaling mountains for damn near a decade. Both units of the Caps PP were strong on Saturday night, and each struck in the second period. It is criminal to leave Alex Ovechkin that wide open, but we’ve entered a state of lawlessness that I’m enjoying. It’s like the Purge.
  • Just as important as the powerplay being good is getting the Caps onto the powerplay to begin with. Caps depth did a tremendous job drawing penalties, even though this game was curiously officiated by Tim Peel and company.
  • Curious as in Connor Carrick got no flack for putting these cross-checks on Alex Ovechkin early in the third. The calls just freaking stopped in the last ten minutes.

  • John Carlson is infamous for an inaccurate slapshot. On Saturday, he did not miss. Dude shows up for big games.
  • Roman Polak left the game after a big hit by Brooks Orpik. The hit itself didn’t seem malicious, but Polak didn’t see it coming and fell awkwardly. I’m no sawbones, but I don’t think feet are supposed to bend that way. Again, didn’t seem like a nefarious hit, and to my eyes the injury occurred when Polak’s leg didn’t get out from under him as he fell to the ice. Polak put no weight on the leg as he was escorted off the ice, so…. that’s bad.
  • After being Game One’s stud, Justin Williams had a rougher going. He took two offensive-zone penalties in the first period and got wrecked by shot metrics. Then again, in his defense…

  • Barry Trotz seems to be committed to putting the Kuznetsov line out against Auston Matthews. It didn’t work nearly as well as it did in Game One, but I’m sure the Beagle line would’ve fared more poorly.
  • Down a goal in the third, the Caps desperate spawned dominance. Trotz iced Orlov, Niskanen, Oshie, Ovechkin, and Nick goddamn Backstrom. Together, Caps!Voltron delivered an intense, extended shooting session that would not end until the goal light lit up. Babcock’s computer boys up in ‘Ronto will call that one a heavy shift for damn sure.

Joe B suit of the night

That was a dangerously entertaining game. It was fun, but it was painful fun. My heart hurts. When those third and fourth and fifth periods’ paces went into the thermosphere, I felt like I had drank lightning. That’s loffs hockey, Caps loffs hockey, Caps overtime loffs hockey. Why do we do this to ourselves? Because it’s rad, but it hurts.

With Zaitsev and Polak out for the Leafs D corps, Babcock will have some interesting questions to answer before Monday night. But that’s all secondary to the big point: this series, once thought a certain blowout, is tied and headed to Toronto.

Get ready.

Full Coverage of Caps vs Maple Leafs

Headline photo: Sean Fitz-Gerald

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