WASHINGTON - Alexander Semin tied the game in the third and added the shootout winner Wednesday as the Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4.
The Capitals led 3-1 heading into the third period, before Mike Brown, Kris Versteeg and Tyler Bozak scored in a span of 3:03 for the visitors.
But Semin evened the game at 4-4 on a power play with about 5 1/2 minutes to go.
Then he and Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington in the shootout, while Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth stopped both of Toronto's attempts.
Nikolai Kulemin gave the Leafs (5-5-2) a 1-0 lead with a goal at 14:29 of the first, before Mike Green, Jason Chimera and Tomas Fleischmann scored for Washington (8-4-0) in the second period.
Ovechkin assisted on Green's power-play goal and on Semin's late third-period goal for Washington, which has won four of its past five games.
Neuvirth finished with 24 saves, while Jonas Gustavsson stopped 26 shots for the Maple Leafs, who have lost four consecutive games, and seven of their last eight.
NOTES: The Leafs broke out of a scoring slump; they hadn't scored more than three goals in a game since Oct. 15, when they beat the New York Rangers 4-3 in overtime. ... Neuvirth entered the game already tied for the NHL lead with seven wins and earned rookie of the month honours in October.
