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.
Connor Carrick crosschecks Alex Ovechkin in the face pic.twitter.com/ib7sgAztXZ
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) April 16, 2017
Justin, cut that out. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/jEzXoOW5Ba
— NHL (@NHL) April 16, 2017
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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