Photo: AP / The Canadian Press - Frank Gunn
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This was only the second time these teams have faced each other so far this season. The last time was also at Air Canada Centre, way back on October 29, 2007. The Washington Capitals, along with the team's former head coach Glen Hanlon, clobbered the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-1. This was the Caps' first visit while led by former Leaf and current head coach Bruce Boudreau. Bruce got to catch up with a lot of old mates while on this trip back. He probably bought a few tickets for family and friends to see this game.
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About six minutes into the first period, Alexander Ovechkin knocked down Tomas Kaberle. Leaf's Pavel Kubina got up in Ovie's grill. It wasn't much of a fight. But, it made me nervous that Kubina had a stick in the fist he was swinging with. No penalties were called. At 7:12, Chad Kilger deflected the puck past Washington's Olie Kolzig for the first goal. Just seconds later, the Capitals got their first Power Play when Toronto's Hal Gill was called for holding. However, they didn't get anything past netminder Vesa Toskala. Caps' Steve Eminger was later called for boarding. Maybe he misjudged the distance, when he pushed Leafs' Alexei Ponikarovsky into the wall. It looked like a shoulder injury, and Ponikarovsky would not return to the game. Washington's John Erskine however, spent the game putting nice, clean but heavy hits on Leafs throughout the game. Donald Brashear joined teammate Erskine in giving particular attention to Darcy Tucker. Tucker was introduced to the ice at least three times in the first period.
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Photo: AP / The Canadian Press - Frank Gunn
.The second period started off with Toskala temporarily losing his stick, but still making a save. Both goalies were very sharp in this game. But, nobody has stopped Alex Ovechkin from getting at least one goal in each of the last six games. Alex tied the score with his 39th goal of the season. Washington's Steve Eminger was making his presence known. At one point, he was in a corner playing the puck with one hand on his stick, while down on his knees and being hooked. The hook went uncalled. With a little over a minute left in the period, Caps' Mike Green went down, losing the puck. The Leafs' Alex Steen put the puck in the net, while Toronto's Nik Antropov rolled over Kolzig with no interference call. The period ended with the Cap's behind by one.
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For those of us watching the game on CSN-DC+, we were shown some old video footage of Cap's head coach Boudreau playing in a game as a Maple Leaf during the second intermission. Pretty neat, watching the old boy score a goal.
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A couple minutes into the third, Mike Green skated in reverse, putting a Rob Blake (one of my personal favorite players) style hit on Toronto's Jason Blake . The Capitals and the Leafs exchanged a few more penalties in the third. But, neither team scored a single PP goal in the entire game. Alexander Semin took a pass from David Steckel and drove to the net. He deked around a defender and backhanded the puck to the back of the net. Alex was upended by Toskala on the way by the net. But, he was all smiles as he got back up. A few seconds after play resumed, Semin got a good chance to put the Cap's ahead. But, the puck didn't get through. With less than 30 seconds left in regulation, the Leaf's Mats Sundin sent the game winner under a sprawling Olie Kolzig. Kolzig had been solid all night, but wasn't quite able to recover from the previous save in time to stop Sundin from getting his 409th career goal.
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Photo: Getty Images - Dave Sanford
The Capitals win streak ends at four games, and they finally lost a game in Canada. Washington will get another shot at the Maple Leafs tomorrow night, when the Leaf's pay their first visit this season to Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
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