The Washington Capitals won back-to-back games for the first time in over a month as they built a 4-0 lead and held on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 Saturday night.
The win left Washington alone in 9th place in the Eastern Conference with 67 points, one point behind Florida and Winnipeg for the Southeast Division lead. In other results Saturday, Winnipeg lost 3-2 to the St. Louis Blues in a shootout, while Florida rallied to defeat Carolina 3-2 in a shootout.
For the Capitals, Michal Neuvirth stopped 28 Toronto shots to record his second straight win, but was denied a shutout with 4:50 gone in the third period when Colby Armstrong scored his first goal of the season with Toronto on a power-play. The Maple Leafs managed to make the final 4:57 more interesting then most Capital fans would have liked when Tim Connolly scored his 10th goal of the season to provide the final margin.
This was the Capitals last game before the NHL trade deadline, which comes on Monday at 3 p.m. The absence of Mike Knuble and Roman Hamrlik (both healthy scratches along with John Erskine), will only fuel the speculation that one (or both) of them will be heading out of town.