Maple Leafs rally from down 2 in 3rd, defeat Capitals in OT

John Tavares scored with 47 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied for a 4-3 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.

After Joseph Woll stopped a one-timer by Alex Ovechkin from the high slot, Mitch Marner cleared the puck down the ice before Tavares gathered it and beat Logan Thompson on a breakaway.

“I had a feeling I wanted to make a move just because of the angle I was at,” Tavares said, “and with him moving laterally, I knew he might have to open up, so I just tried to be aware of possibly going five-hole and it worked out.”

Marner and William Nylander each scored with less than five minutes left in the third period to force overtime. Woll made 24 saves for the Maple Leafs (10-6-2), who lost 3-0 to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

“They just kept working,” Toronto Craig Berube said. “I mean, we got behind, I get that, but I thought in the second period from the 10-minute mark on, we started to really press and do some real good things in the offensive zone and get some opportunities, and it carried over in the third.”

Aliaksei Protas had a goal and an assist for the Capitals (10-4-1). Thompson made 31 saves and took his first loss this season after opening with seven wins.

“The way that that game played out, just embarrassing,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “Flat out. That’s unrecognizable from our team. Playing a team on the second of [a] back-to-back. Third period the way that that looked and [losing] the two-goal lead. Embarrassing.”

Taylor Raddysh gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 11:12 of the first period when his centering pass deflected in off Toronto forward Max Domi.

Bobby McMann tied it 1-1 at 12:11. Tavares entered the zone and deked past defenseman Matt Roy before finding McMann in front.

“Yeah, that was unbelievable,” McMann said. “John just went triangle, triangle, went in around the guy, drew everybody in, everybody was looking at him and then threw it to me. So, that was a pretty easy one.”

Dylan Strome put Washington in front 2-1 at 18:33, taking a pass from Protas in the slot and tucking the puck past Woll’s left skate.

John Carlson appeared to make it 3-1 at 10:32 of the second period on a slap shot from the point, but Toronto successfully challenged the play for goaltender interference by Nic Dowd.

Protas pushed it to 3-1 at 17:48. Ovechkin’s shot was blocked, but Rasmus Sandin got the puck and made a cross-ice pass to Protas, who scored from the right face-off circle.

“Obviously feeling pretty good up 3-1,” Strome said. “Made some mistakes. Just didn’t get the puck in deep.”

After the Maple Leafs had a goal by Steven Lorentz disallowed midway through the third period, Nylander cut it to 3-2 at 15:51. Matthew Knies intercepted Tom Wilson’s pass at the blue line and drove to the net before Nylander tapped in the rebound.

“We started to make some unacceptable plays we usually don’t make and it started to fall apart,” Protas said. “We had chances to close this game out and didn’t. It’s on us. We’ve got to move forward and learn from it.”

With a 6-on-4 advantage, Marner tied it 3-3 with 48 seconds left when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Morgan Rielly past Thompson.

“I think [Rielly] at first was kind of looking shot, but I knew the whole time that he would see me out of the kind of corner of his eye,” Marner said, “and I just tried to put myself in a spot to get that on and off the stick and lucky enough it went in.”

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