Capitals Vs Maple Leafs 12/06/2008 Review

Boyd Gordon hits Jason Blake in third period on December 6, 2008.
Photo by Chris Young / Associated Press / Canadian Press

Capitals 2 - Maple Leafs 1

In contrast to many previous games between the Washington Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leafs, this was a low scoring win for the Capitals in their first match against the Leafs this season. It was the Caps first road win, after having lost four straight.

Both Washington and Toronto have given up a lot of first period goals this season, but neither team scored anything more than a few penalty minutes to start this game. The Caps, who are also good at scoring in the first, did outshoot the Leafs 14-6. However, that technically only brought them two good scoring chances.

Most of the entertaining play of this game happened in the second period. About a minute and a half into the period, Sean Collins (AHL callup replacing injured defenseman Tyler Sloan) sent the puck into the offensive zone for the Caps. Soon after, Karl Alzner intercepted a clearing attempt. Alzner then sent a hard slapshot past netminder Vesa Toskala, for his first NHL goal. Though the scoresheet shows the goal unassisted, Alex Ovechkin helped out by screening the goalie as Alzner released his shot. At the end of the period, Ovechkin provided the most exciting play of the game, though once again without putting a point on the scoresheet. While driving the net and being hooked down (with no call by the refs), Alex somehow got off a hard shot while on his belly. Toskala's glove save wasn't the easiest to make. As in the first, Washington's goalie Brent Johnson only had to make six stops. Unlike in the first, the shots came from a little closer in and weren't so easy either.

To start off the third period, Referee Tim Peel seemed to be picking on Ovechkin with two consecutive penalty calls. The second one (holding) was a legitimate one though. With Ovie in the penalty box, the Leafs got their one goal by Nik Antropov, after a nice overlap drop pass move by Matt Stajan. The Capitals answered back exactly one minute later when, set up by a pass from Michael Nylander at the side wall, Milan Jurcina slapped a bomb through traffic and into the net. Alzner also picked up an assist on the play.

Along with Brent Johnson's 19 saves, it was the defense providing secondary scoring and protecting the Caps' net that won this game for Washington. One of those D men, Karl Alzner provided his first NHL career multi-point game. Tonight's game in Raleigh, NC against the Hurricanes will probably be a little tougher to win with only two goals.