NHL Playoffs: Maple Leafs top Capitals 4-3 in OT

The Toronto Maple Leafs have now won two of the first three games of the first round in the Stanley Cup playoffs. They would also establish a 3-1 lead in the second before Toronto rallied back.

On the ensuing rush the other way, Wilson tipped in his first of two goals of the opening period.

"I thought it was the first time that maybe we weren't scared of them and it looked like it because our competition level wasn't good enough", Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. Luckily it did. Those plays kind of go in slo-mo.

Matthews scored his second of the series at 12 minutes, but Oshie restored Washington's two-goal lead 59 seconds later.

You knew this was going to happen. "Obviously, I think they just laughed it off".

"I think the adjustments aren't there", May said. "High commitment. He's a growing young player who is physically strong".

"We've got to be more prepared", said Auston Matthews, who scored late in Toronto's comeback attempt. Mitch Marner and William Nylander each had two assists.

In Game 4, they started playing like it. "I remember talking to the trainers and their idea was after the all-star break, we'll see how it is". We weren't very good.

Perennial Stanley Cup favorite Chicago is down three games to none against Nashville and the NHL-leading Washington Capitals trail Toronto 2-1 in their first-round series, but that's only part of the story.

Braden Holtby made 30 saves at the other end as the favoured Caps regained momentum with the series shifting back to Washington for Game 5 on Friday night. Toronto goaltender Fredrik Andersen stopped 22 shots.

Asked to point to one reason the Presidents' Trophy-winning Capitals find themselves in a 2-1 hole against the eighth-seeded Maple Leafs after Monday's overtime loss at Air Canada Centre, May focused on the coaching matchup. Washington killed off both penalties.

"I thought all our guys stepped up tonight", Wilson said. But without the amount of goals they've scored this year - I think with 89 goals on that line - you have to get them on the ice and they've got to play.

Patrick Eaves, Nate Thompson and Ryan Getzlaf scored, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 on Wednesday night for a sweep of their first-round playoff series. That's been the case in this series, with Blues netminder Jake Allen frustrating the Wild through the first three games.

"When you don't score there, it's deflating a little", Oshie said.

Months before the Toronto Maple Leafs were on their way to becoming postseason darlings, Morgan Rielly was hobbling around with bags of ice on his right ankle, willing himself to get back into form.

That stood as the victor, as Tyler Bozak scored with 25.8 seconds remaining with Andersen on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.

Leafs coach Mike Babcock has been complimentary of Rielly's performance in his first National Hockey League playoff experience, where he's asked a lot of Rielly and fellow blueliner Jake Gardiner.

If Game 3 really pivoted on a couple of hits by Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov, this one was blown open when the Leafs tried to get too zealous with the body on one shift.

Toronto almost scored again, but Wilson made his save.

Washington made it a three-goal advantage 2:23 later with Wilson finishing off a 2-on-1 feed from Burakovsky.

So far, Rielly is standing up to the Capitals' assault, and skating on his off-side beside partner Matt Hunwick hasn't been an issue.

Van Riemsdyk scored early in the second on a power play, but Toronto wasted almost two full minutes of a 5-on-3 advantage. Backstrom was serving a holding-the-stick minor. When he missed Game 3, it ended his streak of 599 consecutive regular-season (540) and playoff games (59) played since 2010.

POLAK UPDATE: Leafs defenceman Roman Polak was to have surgery Tuesday on his right leg. He was minus-18 over those first 17 games back, with just five assists, while the Maple Leafs went 6-6-5. "His rehab is going to be a long time.".