Written by Nathan Sick at Russian Machine Never Breaks.com
Sunday night the Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs for the last time this season, winning 2-1 in the fifth overtime of the series. All six games were won by one goal. Even though it would’ve been arrogant to completely dismiss the Leafs prior to this series, almost nobody thought it would be quite this tough (Peter and Ian excepted). Props to the Leafs, who showed that they can be a deep, tough, and structured opponent.
The heroics last night came mainly from Marcus Johansson, who got the OT winner and the late third period game-tying goal. Nate Schmidt was nearly injured by Leo Komarov (who we won’t miss), but hopefully he’ll be okay for the Caps’ upcoming matchup with the flightless birds.
Once again, shot attempts were nearly even at 63 to 62 in favor of the Caps at five-on-five, and scoring chances were 31-27. The Caps seized the “big moment” of OT and managed to put five shots on net to just one by the Leafs.
Key Stats
- The depth players chipped in. Last year, we lamented the lack of production from almost everyone below the top line. That trend has been bucked a bit so far this postseason, with three goals from Tom Wilson, another three from Justin Williams, and two more from MoJo. Each of them has a “W” almost solely credited to their name. The only pointless players in the series were Jay Beagle, Brett Connolly, and Daniel Winnik. Still though, of the Caps’ 18 goals this round eight of them came from the top-line trio, which is both good and bad, depending on how you look at it.
- Alex Ovechkin finally led Caps forwards in ice time. We’ve been clamoring for a few games for as much Ovi-time as possible, and last night our request was fulfilled. Ovi skated around 19.5 minutes at five-on-five and was plus-11 in shot attempts and plus-six in scoring chances during that time. The top line trio was a plus-four in shot attempts overall last night, just behind the third line at plus-five. Overall, Ovi was fifth on the team among forwards in ice time per game, with TJ Oshie leading the way in that statistic.
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