Johansson’s OT goal powers Capitals to series win at Toronto
TORONTO — Marcus Johansson came through to help the Washington Capitals get another big overtime win in a series that had five go games go beyond regulation.
Now they get to rest up for the defending champions.
Johansson stuffed his second goal of the game past Frederik Andersen at 6:31 of overtime, lifting the Capitals to a series-winning 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6 on Sunday night.
“They gave us everything they had, and we had to work hard for it and we had to stick with it for a long time,” Johansson said. “This is the playoffs. It’s going to be tight. It’s never going to be an easy ride.”
Auston Matthews broke a scoreless tie with his fourth goal of the series for Toronto at 7:45 of the third, and Johansson tied it with less than 8 minutes to go.
Braden Holtby made 37 saves for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Capitals, who will next face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year in a series that begins in Washington on Thursday night.
“We’re ready,” Johansson said. “We’re excited. We can’t wait to get going. We’ve worked hard for it. We’ve worked all year and all summer to get back into this position, and now we’re here.”
Andersen was sharp with 34 saves.
“Andersen was unbelievable, obviously, keeping them in the game,” the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin said. “They scored on a lucky bounce … but after that we don’t panic, we stay focused, we stay the same, we stay on the same program that we want to do .We had pretty good chances after that and finally (Johansson) scored and tied it.”
It was a bitter end for the Maple Leafs, who made a 26-point leap in the standings during the regular season as they jumped from last place in the NHL to the postseason and then nearly beat the best team in hockey. All six games against of this series were decided by a goal.
Ottawa 3, Boston 2 OT
BOSTON — Clarke MacArthur spent almost two full seasons recovering from a concussion, wondering if he would ever be able to return to the Senators.
“There’s nothing like living in the NHL and living in these playoffs,” he said after scoring a power-play goal 6:30 into overtime to help Ottawa beat Boston 3-2 in Game 6 on Sunday and advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“It (retirement) is something everyone’s going to have to deal with one day,” said the 32-year-old forward, who was injured in the fourth game of last season and didn’t come back until four games left in this one. “But I want to stretch it out as long as I can.”
Bobby Ryan and Kyle Turris scored five minutes apart in the second to give the Senators a 2-1 lead, and Craig Anderson stopped 28 shots for Ottawa. The Senators, who hadn’t won a postseason series for since 2013, will play the New York Rangers in the second round.
Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for the Bruins, who got goals from Drew Stafford and Patrice Bergeron. The Bruins did not get off a shot in the extra period — the fourth overtime game of the series and the 17th of the NHL playoffs, tying the record for an opening round.
“We came in here, took a deep breath (and) realized that, ‘Hey, tie game. Next shot wins. Let’s get back to business,’” Anderson said. “That’s all we did.”
MacArthur sustained a concussion on Oct. 14, 2015 — Game 4 of last season — and hadn’t played since, missing 156 games before he finally passed a baseline test in the last weeks of this season and was cleared to return. He played in only four games this year, without recording a point.
“You’ve been off for a couple of years and you’re thinking, ‘Yeah, I should make this play’ or ‘I should be able to do that,’” he said. “I’ve just been trying to stick with it and be patient, and you know it’s slowly coming.”
MacArthur scored in Game 2 of the series, and then got past David Pastrnak on his way into the Bruins’ zone in overtime, tempting the Boston forward into pulling him down from behind. Just 36 seconds into the power play, MacArthur grabbed a puck that deflected off Tuukka Rask and beat him on the rebound for the series-winner.
