Toronto, October 14 (BUS): Auston Matthews broke the tie in the third round, Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves against his former teammates in Washington, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the capital 3-2 on Thursday evening.
John Tavares and Kaley Yarnrock also scored, and Morgan Riley added assists to help the Maple Leafs recover from an opening 4-3 loss in Montreal on Wednesday night, the Associated Press reported.
Nick Dodd and Marcus Johansson scored for Washington, after a 5-2 loss at home to Boston on Wednesday night. Charlie Lindgren stopped 36 rounds.
Matthews scored in the 6:55 minute on the third, his first goal of the season after leading the National Hockey League last season with 60. Mark Giordano found a line in a point shot that Matthews got with a stick before it tied Lindgren’s hands and bounced the goal line.
The Samonov and Maple Leafs held out late, yielding two penalties and overtaking a stint with Lindgren for an extra attacker.
Toronto opened the scoring at 6:40 in the first period on a powerful play that finally clicked when Riley found Tavares at the edge of a crease with a simple feed.
DC responded at 9:57, and Dodd scored from close range. Johansson gave Washington the lead after a peak shot before 6:08 left at the end of the period.
Toronto tied at 4:03 of a second. Alexander Kervot took a pass from Riley at the offensive blue line and was late before finding Yarncrock with a superb feed for the first time with the Maple Leafs after signing at a free agency.
Samsonov was drafted 22nd overall by Washington in the 2015 draft, but did not receive a qualifying offer from Washington, making him a free agent. The 25-year-old was a 52-22-8 with 902 saves and 2.81 goals versus an average of 89 regular season games with the capitals.
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