Capitals 6 - 2 Maple Leafs
Final
  for this game

Maple Leafs fall to Capitals in Horachek's debut

Jan 8, 2015 - 6:15 AM Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - Eric Fehr and Marcus Johansson each registered a pair of goals, as Washington spoiled the head coaching debut of Peter Horachek by picking up a 6-2 victory in Toronto on Wednesday.

Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich also lit the lamp for the Capitals, who have won three in a row and recorded points in each of their last five (4-0-1).

"We were a little sloppy in the beginning but then we got some things going," said Johansson. "It was tough, that's a good team over there, but we were able to pull it out."

John Carlson and Troy Brouwer each chipped in a pair of assists to back a 31- save effort by Braden Holtby.

Daniel Winnik and Trevor Smith supplied offense for the Maple Leafs, who fired Randy Carlyle on Tuesday and have lost eight of 10 overall.

"This was a frustrating game because we gave them some goals and that got us down," said Winnik. "We have to make some changes here to tighten things up."

Jonathan Bernier allowed five goals on 25 shots in the setback.

The Caps took a three-goal lead on Fehr's blast with 8:40 left in regulation, a shot perfectly placed inside the far post from the right wing just as a Toronto penalty expired.

Holtby remained steady in the crease, turning away all 14 shots he faced in the final 20 minutes, and Ovechkin hit the empty net with 27 seconds on the clock.

The visitors struck first, as Evgeny Kuznetsov fed Johansson for a blistering one-timer from the slot just 5:10 after the opening faceoff.

Winnik evened things for the hosts at 4:49 of the second by redirecting a Cody Franson point offering.

Fehr picked up a short-handed goal with 6:20 elapsed and the visitors went up by a 3-1 count just shy of the nine-minute mark when Laich's shot off a right- circle faceoff win deflected off the stick of Franson and dipped by Bernier.

Smith recorded his first goal of the season at 16:08 which drew the Leafs within one, but Johansson notched his second of the contest on a quick wrister from the right circle to restore Washington's two-goal margin only 42 seconds later.

Game Notes

The 54-year-old Horachek spent 10 years as an assistant with the Nashville Predators under current Capitals coach Barry Trotz and was coach of the Florida Panthers for 66 games last season, finishing 26-36-4 ... Carlyle, a former Leafs defenseman, finished his Toronto coaching tenure with a 91-78-13 regular-season record ... Ovechkin's marker gave him 20 goals in each of his 10 NHL seasons ... Washington has earned a point in 14 of its last 15 games, outscoring the opposition in that time by a 50-31 count.






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