The Maple Leafs were well rested and attempted to jump on the tired Eastern Conference power playing their second of back-to-back games, but Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby stopped 15 first period shots and kept his club on an even footing with Toronto.
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The Capitals would score a power play goal of their own in the second period too, though, thanks to a wild deflection off of Marcus Johansson‘s knee.
The Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs meet Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. With Phaneuf off for interference, Chimera did the grunt work along the boards before getting a pass to Williams, and he snapped it into the top corner past a frozen Bernier for his seventh goal of the season.
The Washington Capitals extended their winning run to five by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the Dallas Stars also won. “Right winger Justin Williams scored the second power play goal at 13:26 to close out the scoring”. “I’m really excited and will go do what I can with the opportunity”.
Toronto outshot Washington, 16-4, in the opening period.
Plus: Tom Wilson scored his first goal of the season thanks to a disgusting giveaway by Morgan Rielly and Jonathan Bernier.
It was the third straight loss for last-place Toronto. Defensively, the Toronto Maple Leafs are allowing 2.6 goals per game and are killing 81.7 percent of their power play chances.
The New York Islanders accounted for the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 with a three-goal comeback and the St Louis Blues netted twice in the final period to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1. I think it’d be best to give Philipp Grubauer some more experience but it’s hard to argue with Holtby’s proven ability to shoulder large workloads.
What makes this strong start by Chimera surprising is how bumpy his first season with Capitals Coach Barry Trotz was.
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That means the likes of Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak, Dion Phaneuf, Daniel Winnik, Leo Komarov, P-A Parenteau, Shawn Matthias, Roman Polak, James Reimer, Brad Boyes and Michael Grabner are all still in play as the Leafs look to rebuild. The Maple Leafs recalled G Garret Sparks from the Toronto Marlies on Saturday and assigned D Scott Harrington to the American Hockey League team. It wasn’t clear if he’d be ready to return for Monday’s home game against the Edmonton Oilers. 938 save percentage for the Toronto Marlies and was a primary reason for their recent 6-0-1 record during a seven-game road trip in early November.
