TORONTO (AP) – Andrew Raycroft made 24 saves for his second shutout of the season and Darcy Tucker and Yanic Perreault each scored their 20th goals to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-0 victory over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.

Alexei Ponikarovsky also scored for the Maple Leafs, who moved into an eighth-place with Carolina in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Tucker opened the scoring at 3:08 of the second against AHL callup Frederic Cassivi, who hadn’t posted an NHL victory since February 2003. Toronto failed to score during a two-man advantage for 80 seconds from the start of the period, but Tucker scored with the teams at even strength.

Cassivi stopped John Pohl’s shot and the puck caromed in off Tucker’s right arm. It was his first goal since Dec. 16 – just before Tucker broke his left foot. Tuesday marked his second game back in the lineup.

Perreault netted his first since joining the Leafs for the third time. Chad Kilger flipped the puck off the boards to get it behind defenseman Milan Jurcina. Perreault raced in to get it and had an open alley to Cassivi. Perreault swooped across the front of the crease, pulled the puck to his backhand and neatly tucked it into the open side of the net at 14:39.

Ponikarovsky got his 18th at 2:47 of the third by deflecting in Nik Antropov’s slap shot.

Notes: Toronto had a 31-24 shots advantage. … Both teams went 0-for-5 on power plays. … Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin remained two goals shy of Darryl Sittler’s club-record 389. … D Pavel Kubina, who had missed the five previous games with a broken finger, was back in the Leafs lineup. … Washington was without LW Matt Pettinger, who broke his right thumb Thursday.

AP-ES-03-06-07 2219EST