In Newark, Ilya Samsonov made 35 saves. and the Washington Capitals escaped New Jersey with a 5-4 win over the Devils on Sunday.
The Caps swept the Devils in their eight-game season series.
“I don’t even think you think about that at the beginning of the year,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You think about going one game at a time and, hopefully, get one win. They are a really good, young team. They’ve got a lot of skill and they’re dangerous and you could see it at times.”
Alex Ovechkin scored his 725th NHL goal.
Conor Sheary had a goal to give the Caps a 2-1 lead.
Carl Hagelin , Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie also scored for Washington.
“‘Hath’ (Garnet Hathaway) did a good job, winning his battle, beating his guy up the ice,” Hagelin said. “I just tried to get open on the 2-on-1 and Hath made a good play through [P.K.] Subban’s stick there, and I just tried to get the puck in the net.”
The Devils trailed 5-2 before Jesper Bratt and Travis Zajac, his second of the game,  added markers for the 5-4 final.
“That’s one thing we have done well, we’ve battled to the end,” Zajac said. “It’s a good character to have in a group. Obviously, we’d like to be in control of games and in the lead and have those type of games, but it’s not always that easy.”
Yegor Sharangovich also scored for the Devils.
“We had so many shots at the net and couldn’t get them to go,” the Devils’ Ryan Murray said. “We had some good chances and then they had some chances and they capitalized on them. We liked the way that we played I think, but obviously those chances that we have, it’s tough when they’re not going in.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 14 saves in the loss.
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