Washington Capitals – Toronto Maple Leafs – 3:7
Washington had every chance of getting into the playoff zone after the game against Toronto. Even with a loss, the Capitals would potentially be ahead of last-place Detroit in the wild-card region; Going into the matchup with the Maple Leafs, Stephan Carbery’s team was one point behind the Red Wings with two games in hand. At the same time, the Capitals were on a streak of three straight wins and were playing at home, while their visitors had no trouble getting into the Stanley Cup but had lost in their previous two games.
But everything did not immediately go according to the scenario of the capital, already in the first shift, just 16 seconds into the match, Toronto opened the scoring. John Carlson failed to get the puck out of the zone along the boards, Max Domi won the fight with the best direction and made a sharp pass from behind the goal into the net where Auston Matthews rolled the puck to Charlie Lindgren. Goal with one touch.
It was a similar story in the second period, when the Maple Leafs needed less than a minute to score. This time they mounted a quick counter attack and captain John Tavares played a perfect pass alone under someone else’s blue line to William Nylander, who moved forward and easily guided the puck through the right touch-in circle to the far nine.
The captain got his team back into the game. Alexander Ovechkin scored on the power play from his favorite left faceoff spot against Justin Wall, who was on the ice for the first time since March 7.
The teams then traded goals within 35 seconds, with Matthews scoring his 57th goal in the league and Connor McMichael within 35 seconds, but just before halftime the visitors scored again to take a two-goal lead into the third period.
Ovechkin brought the Caps back into the fray once again after the Maple Leafs made a very poor pass while leaving the zone, interfering with each other and losing the puck. And receiving the ball, Dylan Strome withstood the grandmaster’s hesitation, put the defender on the ice and passed the ball to Ovi, who “aired the spider” in the near corner with a wrist shot.
True, after that only Toronto hockey players scored, and they did it three more times – Lindgren, a real stronghold on Washington’s final frontier, played a poor match this time.
Matthews, the best sniper of the season, broke the Toronto club record by making multiple accurate shots in his 16th match in a championship. He also added three assists for his team, tying the single-game best of his career. His teammate Domi also broke his personal record by making four assists at the same time.
Ovechkin is tied for 13th in the NHL’s all-time points standings with recently retired Canadian forward Joe Thornton, and Alexander the Great has 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists) in his last 32 games. After a poor start to the season he looks like a goalscorer again and the leader of his team.
Ovi now has 845 goals scored in his career and is only 49 goals shy of the legendary Wayne Gretzky’s record.
Washington couldn’t get past Detroit but still has a game in hand with a one-point lead. Moreover, the Red Wings will now host their common rival, the capital New York Islanders, on their ice. The Capitals’ next meeting will also be at home; Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov will come to them as part of the Carolina Hurricanes, one of the league leaders.
Carbery thinks injured forwards TJ Oshie and Alexei Protas could return to action for this game, with each of their recovery listed as “any day.”
Dallas Stars – Arizona Coyotes – 5:2
Dallas, which is struggling for the championship in the Central League and the entire Western Conference, hosted Arizona, which collapsed after the All-Star game. However, it was the Coyotes who took their chances in the first period, and team leader Clayton Keller became the first Coyotes player to score 60 points in three consecutive seasons since Jeremy Roenick (1998-2001).
However, starting from the second period, everything fell into place. First, Logan Stankoven equalized, then Stars captain Jamie Benn scored his 13th goal of the season, marking his 1,100th career regular season appearance.
Tyler Seguin, who played his first match after receiving treatment in 11 matches, also gave up.
Moreover, they have to thank Matt Duchesne for escaping from a 2-on-1. His partner gained excellent pace and jumped into a killer position, but with a crafty pass behind him, he deflected defender Travis Dermott and goalkeeper Connor Ingram, on whom Seguin had placed his trust. He threw it into the trap. In the third period, the “stars” scored twice more, and Arizona responded with only a single accurate shot.
Los Angeles Kings – Minnesota Wild – 6:0
Kirill Kaprizov and his Minnesota team, chasing the top eight in the cup and collecting points in eight consecutive matches, could not compete against Los Angeles away. The Kings literally swept the visiting team off the ice with one of the goals scored by former Wild forward Kevin Fiala, his 23rd goal of the season.
The main heroes of the match were goalkeeper David Rittich, who scored his third goal for the Kings, and Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, who passed the ball to Fiala and scored his own goal.
Currently, the Slovenian player has 1201 (416+785) points in 1361 matches in the world’s strongest league. He became the 52nd player in history to reach the 1,200 point milestone. Kaprizov attacked the opponent’s goal four times, but ended the match with zero points and -2 usefulness. Thus, both the 8-game point streak and the 5-game goal streak ended.