Washington Capitals Top Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1; Nic Dowd Scores Third Goal In Four Games

Photo: @Capitals The Washington Capitals topped the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 3-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night to improve to 18-6-2 (.731 points percentage) this season. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 16 saves in his third-straight win … Continue reading →

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Dec 20, 2024 - 14:18
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Washington Capitals Top Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1; Nic Dowd Scores Third Goal In Four Games
Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals topped the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 3-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night to improve to 18-6-2 (.731 points percentage) this season. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren made 16 saves in his third-straight win and Washington’s franchise-record eighth straight on the road where they have outscored the opposition by a combined score of 42-18.

Washington’s Lines

Aliaksei Protas – Dylan Strome – Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael– Pierre-Luc Dubois – Taylor Raddysh
Hendrix Lapierre – Lars Eller – Andrew Mangiapane
Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Ivan Miroshnichenko

Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun – Trevor Van Riemsdyk

Lindgren
Logan Thompson

Scratched: LW Jakub Vrana, D Dylan McIlrath, D Alexander Alexeyev

Injured: LW Alex Ovechkin (fractured fibula), LW Sonny Milano (upper-body), C Nicklas Backstrom (hip), RW T.J. Oshie (back)

Toronto’s Lines

Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner
Pontus Holmberg — John Tavares — William Nylander
Nicolas Robertson — Fraser Minten — Steven Lorentz
Niikita Grebenikin — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves

Morgan Rielly — Philippe Myers
Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Christopher Tanev
Simon Benoit — Connor Timmins

Anthony Stolarz
Joseph Woll

Scratched: Alexander Nylander, D Jake McCabe, D Marshall Rifai

Injured: C Max Domi (lower-body), LW Max Pacioretty (lower-body), C David Kampf (lower-body), LW Calle Jarnkrok (lower-body), C Bobby McMann (lower-body)

First Period

Scoring

  • N/A

Stats

  • 8-5 Washington in shots
  • Both teams had two power plays
  • 7-5 Toronto in hits
  • 4-3 Toronto in blocked shots
  • 7-5 Toronto in giveaways
  • 1-0 Toronto in takeaways
Graphics: Natural StatTrick

Second Period

Scoring

  • 1:06, 1-0 Washington: Dowd tipped Roy’s blast from the right point past the blocker of Stolarz in front of the net after Roy caught the puck rimming around the boards. Dowd has scored in back-to-back games and now has three goals in his last four games. Roy has tallied an assist in both games against Toronto this season.
  • 11:31, 1-1: After Stolarz turned a point shot away, Tanev cleared the puck and sprained Tavares on a breakaway. Tavares deked, got Lindgren down and out, and beat him on the backhand.

Stats

  • 15-14 Washington in shots
    • 9-7 Toronto in the second
  • 18-12 Toronto in hits
  • 13-8 Toronto in blocked shots
  • 18-11 Toronto in giveaways
  • 3-1 Toronto in takeaways

Third Period

Scoring

  • 9:51, 2-1 Washington: After Matthews flipped the puck behind the net, it took bounce off of the boards and Stolarz to the front, where McMichael curled and ripped it over the glove of Stolarz. Twelve of McMichael’s 15 goals have come at five-on-five, which is tied for the most in the NHL with Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson and Carolina Hurricanes center Jack Roslovic.
  • Lindgren lunged forward to flash the right pad on Tavares with less than 90 seconds to go after he got a cross-ice feed.
  • 19:04, 3-1 (ENG): Protas skated in for the empty net goal after Wilson pushed the puck forward to Dowd from the half-wall in Washington’s end and Dowd sent in Protas.

Stats

  • 26-21 Washington in shots
  • .542 Washington on faceoffs
  • Washington did not score on four power plays
    • Toronto failed to convert on two
  • 25-16 Toronto in hits
  • 17-12 Toronto in blocked shots
  • 21-15 Toronto in giveaways
  • 3-2 Toronto in takeaways

With their victory on Friday, the Capitals improved to 5-1-0 in the first game of back-to-backs. Washington has outscored the opposition 26-14 in the first half of back-to-backs this season. The Capitals have allowed the fewest third-period goals (17) in the NHL this season. Washington is 5-0-1 since losing their first two games without Ovechkin in regulation.

Washington, who had lost five straight (0-4-1) and nine of their previous 10 (1-7-2) vs. Toronto entering Friday, lifted two points ahead of the New Jersey Devils (who have played three more games) for the Metropolitan Division lead and vaulted three ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes (with both teams having played 26) for second.

Next game: Saturday at Montreal Canadiens (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)

By Harrison Brown

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