Leafs Sneak By Capitals
Want to figure out the Toronto Maple Leafs as the playoffs approach? Simple. They lose to the bad teams and beat the good ones.
The Washington Capitals have the opposite problem. After piling up wins in a soft stretch of their schedule, they've ended a franchise-record run with back-to-back home losses against playoff teams.
For Toronto, add Saturday's 4-3 victory over the Capitals, a thrilling battle of division leaders, to recent impressive victories over New Jersey, St. Louis and Detroit.
The Maple Leafs have looked unimpressive in home losses Atlanta, Chicago and the New York Islanders.
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Four Toronto players scored, three after blatant defensive errors, as the Maple Leafs built a 4-1 lead and staved off a third-period rally for their first win at Washington since 1994.
The victory moved Northeast Division-leading Toronto (96 points) within one point of Southeast Division-leading Washington (97) in the seeding race for the Eastern Conference playoffs. New Jersey leads the Atlantic Division with 99 points.
Thomas, Jonas Hoglund, Yanic Perreault and Sergei Berezin scored for the Maple Leafs, who played their third game in four nights and had lost four of six. Curtis Joseph stopped 24 shots, including a momentum-changing kick save on Ulf Dahlen's penalty shot in the first period.
"Boy, the panic threshold got tested," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "We're in and out, real good and not so good.
"We know we have a good team. Some nights we're not there. I can understand why we've been vacant for the last little while. We're looking down the road, we've got the playoff thing socked up, we've had some adversities that were tough. The key is going to be collecting it for that first round."
Down 4-1 after two periods, the Capitals rallied with goals from Steve Konowalchuk with 17:17 to play and Glen Metropolit with 11:07 remaining. It was Metropolit's second of the game and fifth this season.
The Capitals outshot the Maple Leafs 11-5 in the third, but couldn't get the equalizer.
The Capitals, who lost in overtime to Pittsburgh on Thursday, had gone 96 days without losing back-to-back games, the longest such stretch in team history. It was only the fifth time all season that the Caps have failed to gain a point in a home game.
"It's good that it happens now, because sometimes it's like no one listens and you are able to get away with playing against an Atlanta or New York Islanders because they can't compete with you," Washington coach Ron Wilson said. "I've got to get our defense out of this funk."
The game's first score came at 3:57 of the first when Thomas' slap shot from the point caught goalie Olaf Kolzig off guard.
Metropolit tied it on a more dramatic play. Joe Reekie's shot from the point was deflected high in the air and fell into the crease. Metropolit got to the puck before Joseph did, poking it in at 7:19.
Joseph stopped Dahlen on the penalty shot just 21 seconds later. The shot was awarded when a Toronto player covered the puck in the crease.
Mats Sundin and Hoglund worked a 2-on-1 break for Hoglund's score at 18:53 of the first, and Perreault, sprung on a neutral zone pass from Dimitri Yushkevich, outraced Dahlen on a breakaway to put Toronto up 3-1 at 5:44 of the second.
Berezin got the fourth from close range at 9:57 of the second.
The Capitals played without right wing Peter Bondra, day-to-day with a shoulder strain, and center Andrei Nikolishin, day-to-day with a recurring abdominal strain.
Wilson had complained that he was tired of seeing basketball results rotating with hockey results on the MCI Center scoreboard, interfering with his scoreboard-watching during the Capitals' playoff chase. On Saturday, nothing but hockey results were shown, wiping even the NCAA's Final Four off the scoreboard.
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