The Washington Capitals took care of business in the form of a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Alex Ovechkin's return to the lineup since hurting his left fibula on Nov. 18.
John Tavares struck first for his 18th goal of the season at 3:14 of the opening period. Andrew Mangiapane tied it with his eighth of the season while Hendrix Lapierre set him up with his eighth apple on the season at 4:46. At 8:54 of the period Jakob Chychrun struck for his 10th goal of the season as Trevor van Riemsdyk and Taylor Raddysh each picked up their 12th assists on the season.
2-1 would be the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 15-14. In the second period Bobby McMann tied it at 8:10 with his 10h goal of the season. Nic Dowd would put the Caps in front 3-2 with a goal at 9:53 for his ninth of the season. Rasmus Sandin and Andrew Mangiapane had the assists, their 11th and sixth, respectively.
In the third period Tom Wilson added a power play goal at 12:36 for his 14th of the season. Chychrun added his 13th assist while Dylan Strome increased his assist total to 28. At 16:32 Alex Ovechkin put the game away with an empty net goal for his 16th of the season. Aliaksei Protas and Pierre-Luc Dubois assisted there.
It gave Ovechkin his 869th goal of his career putting him 25 away from Wayne Gretzky's record for the most NHL goals of all time.
On the goalie side of things, Logan Thompson made 35 saves for a .946 save percentage. Toronto outshot Washington 13-8 in the second period and again 10-9 in the thrid period to lead in shots overall 37-32.
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery told the media after the game via Dave McCarthy of NHL.com:
"We scratched and clawed tonight, it was a little rusty you could tell coming out of the break. The first couple periods not the way we drew it up but we found some goals, we grinned, got some good saves and then the third period was our best period... We'll take it, these games are tough coming out of the break."Spencer Carbery
The Caps are back in action tonight at 5 p.m. when they take on the Detroit Red Wings from Little Caesars Arena. You can catch the game on Monumental Sports Network.