New Jersey Devils (23-37-5 51pts) @
Washington Capitals (37-20-10 84pts)
Game Recap:
Tonight’s matchup features the New Jersey Devils completing their short two game road trip against the Washington Capitals. Pre-game festivities featured a celebration in honor of Capitals center Nicklaus Backstrom who recently achieved the 1,000 point plateau in the NHL. Now onto the action where it was a quiet and scoreless period as both teams traded chances and even had an opportunity on the power play. Neither team would score and we would move onto the second period.
The scoring drought ended early in the second period as Jack Hughes got the Devils on the board. Yegor Sharangovich found Hughes in the high slot and beat Capitals goalie Vitek Vanacek upstairs for the lead. However a couple minutes later, Tom Wilson evened the score up as Connor Sheary was patient and able to set him up on the 2 on 1 for his twentieth goal of the season and the score now 1-1. Damon Severson was able to give New Jersey their lead back as he maneuvered around the forward covering him at the point and blast a shot past the goalie for his tenth goal of the season at the 7:17 mark. The Devils did a good job after the Wilson goal to limit the Capitals chances and would take a 2-1 lead heading into the third period.
Early on in the third period, Connor McMichael tied the game up at two a piece for Washington on a delayed penalty and tapped in the cross ice pass to the side of the net from Justin Schultz for his ninth goal of the season. That wouldn’t be it for the Capitals as they were able to get their first lead as Nicklas Backstrom was able to wrist one past Devils goalie Nico Daws for his sixth goal of the season. Alex Ovechkin joined in on the scoring as he got a nice pass to the left side of the net from Evgeny Kuznetsov and buried the puck into the back of the net on the power play for his forty second goal of the season. However, Washington had to really survive the last few minutes as the Devils threw everything they had at the Capitals. New Jersey got within one goal late as Jesper Bratt got the Devils within one but it wasn’t enough as Washington held on to win by a final score of 4-3. The Devils are right back in action tomorrow evening as they return home to face the Montreal Canadiens.
New Jersey Devils
Washington Capitals
Game Highlights
First Period
*No goals scored
Second Period
GOAL (NJ) :55- Jack Hughes (Yegor Sharangovich, Dawson Mercer)
GOAL (WSH) 2:47- Tom Wilson (Connor Sheary, John Carlson)
GOAL (NJ) 7:17- Damon Severson (Ryan Graves, Jesper Boqvist)
Third Period
GOAL (WSH) 2:08- Connor McMichael (Justin Schultz, John Carlson)
GOAL (WSH) 6:56- Nicklas Backstrom (Anthony Mantha)
GOAL (WSH) Power Play 11:48- Alex Ovechkin (Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom)
GOAL (NJ) 19:28- Jesper Bratt (Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier)
Final Stats
Next Up: New Jersey Devils @ Montreal Canadiens, Sunday 3/27/22 7pm EST
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