Capitals winning streak ends in Toronto

The Washington Capitals four game winning streak came to an end last night to the Toronto Maple Leafs by a final of 7-3. It makes one thing clear, the Caps should avoid the Atlantic side of the bracket at all costs.

The Maple Leafs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. First it was Michael Bunting at 4:37 and then William Nylander at 13:45. Toronto led in shots 11-4 after 20.

At 10:06 the Caps finally got on the board. John Carlson crashed the net with some excelling puck handling for his 15th goal of the season. Sadly that momentum for the Caps was short lived.

The Leafs poured it on with four goals. Ilya Lyubushkin scored at 10:19. Nylander scored his second of the game at 10:37. Then it was Ilya Mikheyev at 14:44 and then Bunting added his second of the night at 16:25.

At 19:07 Tom Wilson had a sharp angle one timer shot for his 24th goal of the season. Lars Eller and Carlson had the assists. 6-2 was the score after two with the Leafs leading in shots 15-10.

At 1:27 Mikheyev added his second goal of the game. At 11:58 the Caps got only one back with Nic Dowd’s ninth goal of the season. The assists came from Trevor van Riemsdyk and Johan Larsson. The Caps led in shots 11-6 in the third period while the Leafs led 32-25 overall.

The Caps started with Ilya Samsonov in net but eventually had to play Vitek Vanecek later after Samsonov allowed four goals on 19 shots. Vanecek allowed three on 13 shots. The Caps did no favors by playing awful in all three zones as old problems started to come back.

Coach Peter Laviolette told the media after the game:

"“There was a lot of things that needed to be better. Certainly speed was one of them. There was a lot more too. We will take it and try to get better from it. There is a lot we can do to be better than we were tonight and get back to winning some hockey games.”"

The Caps will be back in action on Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens as they’ll look to avoid a trap game.