"I think over the course of a game that long, it's draining mentally," Rielly said. "I think that it's easy to make mistakes at the end of that. But I think we did a good job as a team backing each other up and picking each other up when we needed to."
Boyle could have been the goat. He took a tripping penalty in the first OT when he whirled around in the corner trying to whack at the puck and got his stick tangled in the legs of Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov. But the Maple Leafs killed it.
"Credit to the boys for keeping that away from the headlines, making sure that wasn't a storyline," Boyle said.
And in the second OT, Boyle and linemate Matt Martin won a battle in the left-wing corner of the Washington zone. Martin sent the puck behind the net for Boyle. Kapanen saw Capitals defenseman John Carlson had lost his stick, went to the net and yelled for the puck. Boyle didn't hear him, but he saw him.
Boyle drew the defense and goaltender Braden Holtby one way, then sent a behind-the-back, backhand pass the other way. Kapanen scored before Holtby knew what happened. The 20-year-old rookie had played eight regular-season games and scored one goal. Now he had played two playoff games and scored two goals in one of them, including a double-OT winner.
"I was right behind the net when the puck went in," Boyle said. "I got a great view of it. It was just … It's a great feeling. I'm really happy for Kappy. What a game for him. … He should feel really good about himself. That's a big-time effort against a really good hockey team on the road in the playoffs. It's a nice feather in his cap."
It's a nice feather for all of these Maple Leafs as they head home for Game 3 at Air Canada Centre on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports 2, CSN-DC).
"I think we've proven to everybody that we can play with these guys," Kapanen said. "I'm really excited to go to Toronto to see how the fans are going to be for our two games. It's going to be wild."