In Washington, DC, Evgeny Kuznetsov struck for two goals to lead the Capitals to a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.
“I think I’m starting [to] understand more what the coach wants from me,” Kuznetsov said. “After the pretty long break after COVID, [it] wasn’t easy to get back in hockey shape. I hope that I’m going to continue to grow and I hope the team [is] going to play much better. We know we can be successful. I know it’s nice to get a couple goals but at the end of the day we got two points. That’s all that matters now.”
Vitek Vanecek made 21 saves to get the victory for the Caps to keep pace with the New York Islanders.
Nicholas Merkley, Miles Wood and Jesper Bratt were the Devils’ strikers.
“Well, we’ve been pretty good at staying focused. Tonight was a little different story,” Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. “It just seemed that immediately after [you score] you’re looking for momentum, you’re looking for a good shift and we didn’t get that, and it ended up in the back of our net.”
New Jersey dropped to 12-15-4.
“I thought we came back and were playing hard, got the power-play goal we needed,” Ruff said. “But we didn’t execute our breakout, the puck stayed in the zone and they get a lucky bounce [on Kuznetsov’s goal].”
Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov added single markers for the Caps.
“They were odd goals that they had,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said. “Those can be deflating. And I thought our team gave a really good response right away to come back, even the score up and keep us in the game and not have that first goal turn into a second goal right away for them.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 18 saves in the loss.
“The most important shifts in the game are the start of a period and after a goal. Those are two key points in a game,” Wood said. “I felt like we came out flat after we scored, and it cost us a few times.”
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