Monday Night in the NHL | Leafs inflict another setback on Capitals

Leafs win 5-3 over Capitals

Rasmus Sandin scored the game-winning goal with 3:23 left in the third period as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Monday night. This is the sixth consecutive defeat suffered at home by the band to Alex Ovechkin.

The Capitals started the game badly, allowing the first goal in the third minute of play and trailing 3-1 after one period. However, they found a way to regroup to tie the game early in the third period when Tom Wilson scored his second goal of the game.

Vitek Vanecek stopped the first 16 shots he faced in relief to Ilya Samsonov. However, he couldn’t stop Sandin’s shot following a turnover caused by young defenseman Martin Fehervary who had the puck stolen by veteran John Tavares.

Pierre Engvall completed the scoring for the Leafs by scoring in an empty net. Defensive errors, including goaltenders, caused the Capitals loss. Fehervary fell in the corner of the rink and had the disc stolen on Michael Bunting’s first goal of the game. Then, William Nylander beat Samsonov between the pads and Justin Holl gave the visitors a 3-1 lead by collecting a loose puck in front of the net with 1.6 seconds on the clock.

Samsonov gave up for the start of the second period after allowing three goals on ten shots.

The Maple Leafs have now won three in a row, but that performance has done nothing to inspire confidence that this team is capable of being responsible on defense. Two days after winning a 10-7 offensive game in Detroit, the Leafs needed to bring out the heavy artillery once again to offset the largesse of goaltender Petr Mrazek.

Mrazek gave up three goals on 33 shots in a rare start as a replacement for star goaltender Jack Campbell.

Conor Sheary scored the other goal for the Caps, who left the ice with a few boos at the sound of the siren late in the game.

Stephen Whyno, Associated Press

The Devils have fun against the Canucks

Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist to defeat his big brother as the New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks 7-2 on Monday.

Goaltender Nico Daws shone with 36 saves for the Devils.

Yegor Sharangovich, Dawson Mercer, Jesper Boqvist, Ryan Graves, Jesper Bratt and Dougie Hamilton also scored for the Devils, who scored seven goals for the third time in the last seven games.

Devils captain Nico Hischer had two assists. Quinn Hughes, defenseman for the Canucks, was cleared from the scoresheet. Vasily Podkolzin and Tanner Pearson hit the target for the Canucks. Jaroslav Halak allowed six goals on 14 shots before being ejected from the game. In relief, Thatcher Demko stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced.

The Devils extended their winning streak against the Canucks to 12, a streak that began in the 2014-15 season. The Devils’ last loss at the hands of the Canucks dates back to November 25, 2014.

The Canadian Press