Capitals defeat Maple Leafs behind Erik Gustafsson

The Washington Capitals dominated the Toronto Maple Leafs. No, Alex Ovechkin didn’t score but they put together a 5-2 victory as Erik Gustafsson became the first defenseman on the Caps to record a hat trick since Sergei Gonchar in 2000.

At 11:12 the Caps struck first as John Carlson found Sonny Milano on the side of the net who flipped it to Gustafsson for a backhanded score for his first goal as a Cap.

William Nylander tied it at 13:12. The Caps answered with a wrist shot from Trevor van Riemsdyk at 14:48 for his fourth goal of the season and third goal in four games. Anthony Mantha and Milano had the assists.

2-1 Caps was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 14-13.

At 2:51 in the second period Gustafsson scored his second goal of the game. Milano got his third assist of the night with the secondary helper and Evgeny Kuznetsov fed a cross ice pass for the slam dunk.

Auston Matthews cut the deficit to one. 3-2 was the score after 40 with the Maple Leafs leading in shots 14-6.

In the third the Maple Leafs led in shots 9-8 and 36-28 overall but it would be the Caps that would put the game away.

10 seconds into the third period, the Caps extended their lead with a no look pass from Nick Jensen to Garnet Hathaway for his third goal of the season and first of the season on home ice.

At 3:47 Gustafsson completed the hat trick which was assisted by Kuznetsov and Aliaksei Protas. It was a shot that went top shelf on the left corner through the net as hats rained down on the ice.

Gustafsson is the third defenseman in franchise history to record a hat trick. On Monday night the Capitals will close out their mini three game homestand against the Detroit Red Wings.