In Newark, the New Jersey Devils seemingly took control of their game with the Washington capitals on Wednesday night, when they scored four times in the middle frame for a 4-3 lead.
“Through a couple of games here, where we haven’t been playing our best, we kind of carried the mistakes of a period into the next one, and it kind of compounds everything,” Capitals forward T.J. Oshie said. “We learned from that and today we came out, just let it go, got back to our game, and it’s a good win against a very good team.”
New Jersey seemed to have wrested control away from the Caps after Washington had scored three times in the fist period for a 3-0 lead.
Hunter Shepard made 18 saves in his NHL match for the win.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” Shepard said. “I’m excited to get out there and see my parents because it’s been a pretty emotional day. To have 13 or 14 people make it here on a day’s notice from Minnesota, it’s quite the support system.”
Tyler Toffoli , who had a double in the game, scored in the second period to cut into the Caps lead at 3-1.
Timo Meier scored at 5:19 to trim the deficit to 3-2.
“It was a roller-coaster game, but you have to earn momentum back, and we didn’t do a good enough job,” Meier said. “We just let that momentum swing get away from us.”
Nico Hischier tied the game at 3-3 at 6:49 of the second.
“Our puck play was atrocious,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “We couldn’t go tape to tape, and we were a soft team. I thought we got what we deserved tonight.”
Toffoli then his for his double at 10:01 of the second to send the game to the third with the Caps trailing, and rattled, 4-3.
Anthony Mantha staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“A lot of good performances by Strome, Mantha. … To get that goal early for him, it was a great play on the look-off shot, but Shepard, specifically, good for him,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “His first NHL start, probably not the way we wanted to draw it up in the second period, but that’s a cool moment. He’ll never forget that for the rest of his life.
“I’m sure family, friends, people in the building were happy to see him win his first NHL start.”
In the opening frame, the Caps buzzed the ice, and were passing and skating with frenzy.
Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano scored in the first to give the Caps a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.
After the second period outburst from New Jersey, it seemed the Caps were out of the game.
However, Strome hit for his second of the night at 18 seconds of the third to restore the swagger for the Caps and 4-4 score.
“Our power play stepped up right out of the gate to sort of set the tone for the third period, and then I thought for the first half of the third we were on it,” Carbery said. “Then we did enough good things in the final 10 minutes to hang on. We made smart decisions, smart reads, and smart puck plays to keep everything to the perimeter.”
Less than minutes later, Connor McMichael scored for a 5-4 advantage to Washington.
Alex Ovechkin added a late empty-net goal for the 6-4 final.
“The message after the second period was really simple, actually,” Oshie said. “It was more of a question from the bench boss if we wanted to play like the first period or the second period. So we kind of shook that second period off, which is a good sign.”
Akira Schmid got the start for New Jersey, and surrendered three goals, making just five saves.
He was given the hook, and relieved by Vitek Vanecek, who made 14 saves.
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