TORONTO - After snatching Game 2 in double overtime, Kasperi Kapanen said the Toronto Maple Leafs would give the Washington Capitals a run for their money.
He was right.
Tyler Bozak scored the overtime winner and Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist as the Leafs pulled in front 2-1 in their best-of-seven series with Washington with a 4-3 win on Monday night. William Nylander and Nazem Kadri (two points) also found the back of the net for Toronto and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves.
The Leafs dug out from a pair of two-goal deficits in the victory, taking unlikely control of a meeting with the Presidents' Trophy winners and perennial playoff disappointments.
Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov all scored in defeat for the Caps while Braden Holtby gave up four goals on 28 shots with Game 4 ahead on Wednesday night.
All three games so far have been decided in overtime.
The Leafs were hosting their first playoff game in almost four years and coming off an exciting 91-minute double overtime win in Game 2, but it was the Capitals who got the early jump in Game 3. They scored twice in the first five minutes with both goals coming from their vaunted top line of Ovechkin, Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.
Nate Schmidt, who was filling in for an injured Karl Alzner, got the first one started by rushing into the Toronto zone with speed before finding Backstrom crashing the net across the ice. The Swede beat Leafs defenceman Nikita Zaitsev there and stuffed in a shot short-side.
Zaitsev was playing his first game of the series and first ever in the NHL playoffs after sitting out the opening two games with a suspected concussion.
He came up short again on the Caps second goal, giving just a little too much room to Ovechkin, whose slap shot beat Andersen high from the left faceoff circle. Heavy, hard pressure from Ovechkin and his linemates spurred the goal as the Leafs were pushed off pucks in a series of board battles.
It was the second goal on two shots to beat Andersen, who had outplayed reigning Vezina trophy winner Braden Holtby in the first two games.
Washington looked crisp and confident in the early-going, cycling pucks with authority in the Toronto end. But they generated few shots or scoring chances beyond the goals and the Leafs pushed back with Matthews' first of the series.
The 19-year-old, held without a point in Games 1 and 2, sped through the neutral zone with speed and fired a shot that ricocheted off John Carlson, the face of Schmidt, and the body of the Leafs centre before finally hitting Holtby. He stopped the initial shot, but Matthews hung with it and batted the rebound out of mid-air to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Preceding Matthews first-ever NHL playoff goal - the youngest by a Leaf in the post-season since Daniel Marois in 1988 - and electrifying the crowd were two huge hits from Kadri on Capitals defenceman Brooks Orpik and a series of jabs at Ovechkin by Leo Komarov.
Washington had a chance to put the Leafs away after Kuznetsov upped the lead back to two with his first of the post-season, but Toronto's penalty kill managed to bend but not break on a full two-minute five-on-three Capitals power play - one that Martin Marincin played the entirety of.
Yielding two power-play goals in Game 2, the unit stood tall again a short while later when the club was called for too many men.
Gaining some steam from that bit of special teams superiority, the Leafs pulled back within one when Kadri fired through traffic from the point to beat Holtby. His shot appeared to carom off the back-side of Orpik.
Then it was the rookie line of Matthews, Nylander and Zach Hyman striking again - their speed and skill proving troublesome all night long for the Caps.
Hyman drew two defenders as he chased down a dump into the offensive zone and with a little extra room Matthews pulled the puck out and fed Nylander in front. The 20-year-old, one of three Leafs rookies with 60-plus points in the regular season, was stopped on his first attempt, but followed up to even the score at three.
It was the second two-goal lead of the night the Leafs worked their way back from, youth again rising on the big stage. Two nights earlier in Game 2, Kapanen, another rookie, scored twice, including the double overtime winner.
The Finn is one of 10 Leafs to make their post-season debut this spring.
"That's a talking point," Capitals defenceman Matt Niskanen said of the Leafs' limited playoff experience before the game. "At the end of the day it's just hockey."
The Leafs held the Caps without a shot for the first 13-plus minutes of a dominant third, but failed to score with a pair of power plays. Washington ultimately finished the frame with only three shots at Andersen, nearly scoring when Kuznetsov fired a shot off the cross-bar.
Marincin was forced to exit with just under eight minutes left in regulation after getting tangled up with Tom Wilson.
Hyman drew the power play late in regulation on the goal that Bozak scored in overtime to win it.
