Toronto Maple Leafs comeback ends with shootout loss
The Toronto Maple Leafs had the lead twice in a see-saw affair, but ultimately fell by shootout to the Washington Capitals, who claimed a 5-4 victory on Wednesday, 3 November.
How it happened
The Maple Leafs scored the only goal of the first period when Nikolai Kulemin stole the puck in front of the Washington goal and fired a wrist shot past Michal Neuvirth.
The Capitals responded with a strong second period getting three goals in just over five minutes. Defenceman Mike Green got things started scoring his second of the season on the power play. Midway through
the second and the Capitals got two goals in less than a minute, the first coming from Jason Chimera and the second coming from Tomas Fleischmann.
The Maple Leafs then fought back in the third period getting three goals in just over a three minute span to take the lead. Tyler Bozak scored on the power play to give the Leafs a 4-3 lead after Mike
Brown and Kris Versteeg helped Toronto pull back level.
Unfortunately for Toronto their lone penalty of the third period opened the door for Alexander Semin to score the game tying goal and send the game to overtime.
With no goals in the extra frame, Alex Ovechkin and Semin each scored in the shootout, while Neuvirth turned away both of Toronto's shooters to get the win for Washington.
What they're saying
After scoring only four power play goals in their first nine games, the Washington Capitals have scored five in their last two.
"We are finally going back to the basics and creating the chances that we were creating last year," Green said. "I think at the start of the year we were making the wrong plays at the wrong times and it
has taking almost a month and half to click again. It feels good out there."
Semin, who had been feeling sick before the game, not only got Washington's tying goal, but the shootout winner as well.
"It is funny because he was sick tonight and we didn't know if he would be scratched or not until after warm-ups,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said of Semin. "He said he wanted to play and he becomes
the hero."
The Maple Leafs, playing without captain Dion Phaneuf who is out with an injury, have now lost four in a row. They have a chance to rebound when they take on the NHL's worst team, the Buffalo Sabres, at
home on Saturday, 6 November.
The Washington Capitals will have to next contend with one of the hottest teams in the NHL, the Boston Bruins, when they go head-to-head on Friday night.
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