Ovechkin's four points help Capitals defeat Maple Leafs in OT

TORONTO -- Alex Ovechkin had four points, including a goal with one minute remaining in overtime, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Ovechkin (two goals, two assists) one-timed a pass from Dmitry Orlov at the top of the left face-off circle on the power play.
"My job is to shoot the puck and create and score for my team, and obviously the boys know if I'm wide open, I'm there," Ovechkin said. "If guys play close to me, different guys are open, so it's why we've built our chemistry and find ways to score lots of goals."
WATCH: [All Capitals vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
John Carlson scored twice, Nicklas Backstrom had three assists, and Braden Holtby made 27 saves for the Capitals (9-2-3), who are 6-0-1 in their past seven games and went 4-0-1 on a five-game road trip.
"You have to believe in what you're doing, and you have to believe that you're never out of a game," Washington coach Todd Reirden said. "There's adversity, but it's just focusing on us trying to maximize each shift and let's hope enough things go our way and sure enough they were for this road trip. It was a pretty amazing road trip when you look back at it and now it's important we take some of this momentum from this trip home with us."

Auston Matthews scored twice and had an assist, Andreas Johnsson scored, and Frederik Andersen made 30 saves for the Maple Leafs (6-5-3), who are 2-3-2 in their past seven games.
"We needed to find a way to win the game," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought we got through it when we got through the (first) kill in overtime, and then we took another one there on the high stick. It's unfortunate because I thought we'd done a real nice job on the penalty kill (in overtime)."
The Maple Leafs went up 3-2 at 1:46 of the third period when Matthews scored a power-play goal from the slot.
Ovechkin tied it 3-3 at 4:10 after T.J. Oshie got around Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly and passed to him at the side of the net.
Carlson put the Capitals up 2-1 six seconds into a two-man advantage on a slap shot from the top of the right face-off circle at 7:59 of the second period.
Matthews tied it 2-2 with 33 seconds left in the period when he deflected a shot from Tyson Barrie.

"I just put my stick out there and he found me," Matthews said. "I was just trying to get it to the net."
The Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead 40 seconds into the first period when Johnsson took a pass from Matthews, who was behind the net, and shot over Holtby's glove.
The Capitals tied it 1-1 at 10:47 when a cross-ice pass from Ovechkin caromed off the right boards and Carlson scored on a one-timer over Andersen's blocker.
"It was a successful trip, but the biggest thing now is to refocus because coming home after a long trip, you can kind of get a little relaxed when you get back," Holtby said. "But we did what we needed to do here, so now it's time to go home and keep moving forward."
Rielly said, "All in all, I think there were good things done. Obviously you don't want to live with that end result, but it is what it is, so we'll talk about it tomorrow, watch some video and try to get better from it."

They said it

"It's awesome. That's a tough October and we persevered as a group. We came together a lot this trip. I think that's why it's there. We had some fun, and it definitely helps to get that last win." -- Capitals forward Tom Wilson
"It was OK, I'm happy with my game more or less. I made a couple mistakes I probably expected myself to make but a couple of good things feeling the speed of the game again and got a couple hits again to get the confidence going with my shoulder. I was anxious before the game, I just wanted to get things going." -- Maple Leafs defenseman Travis Dermott, who played 12:56 and had a blocked shot in his season debut after recovering from shoulder surgery May 10

Need to know

With his second goal of the game, Ovechkin passed
Luc Robitaille
for 12th on the NHL list with 669. … Carlson set the Capitals record for most points in any month by a defenseman with 23 (seven goals, 16 assists) when he scored his second of the game. He passed
Sergei Gonchar
, who had 22 points in January 2000. … Washington forward Nic Dowd left the game at 14:55 of the first period after a hit along the boards by Maple Leafs defenseman Justin Holl. Reirden had no update after the game. … Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin left the game at 12:23 of the first with a leg injury after a hit from Wilson. Babcock said Muzzin had a charley horse.

What's next

Capitals: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Friday (7 p.m. ET; SN, NBCSWA, MSG-B, NHL.TV)
Maple Leafs: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SNO, NBCSP, NHL.TV)