The Maple Leafs extinguish the Capitals

Woll walls off 37 as Washington goes dark

Thirty-eight shots, one goal

Qualification night lit all 32 candles, and in Washington one of them had to go out. The Washington Capitals, 25th of 32 a season earlier, hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had finished fourth of 32. Whoever lost was out. The Capitals fired 38 shots. Joseph Woll turned away 37 of them.

Toronto struck first on the power play at 12:53 of the first period, when defenseman Morgan Rielly beat Darcy Kuemper with a wrist shot, set up by Timothy Liljegren and Max Domi.

Forty-eight seconds apart

At 2:45 of the second, Mark Giordano was called for hooking on a breakaway and Washington got a penalty shot. Nothing went up on the Capitals' side of the scoreboard. At 5:41, John Tavares tipped in a feed from Rielly, with Tyler Bertuzzi also assisting, and that goal stood up as the winner. Just 0:48 later, William Nylander buried a snap shot off a pass from Auston Matthews. Then Matthews scored one himself: with Tom Wilson off for abuse of officials, he hammered a power-play slap shot at 15:07, Mitch Marner and John Klingberg assisting.

Ovechkin's lone spark

Alex Ovechkin finally beat Woll on the power play at 19:49 of the second with a wrist shot, set up by John Carlson and Wilson. It was all Washington got. Kuemper stopped 13 of 17. The Capitals' candle went dark, and the Maple Leafs are one of 31 flames still burning.