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Eked it out on Easter: Caps beat Devils 5-4

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The Washington Capitals met with the New Jersey Devils for the final time this season, looking to sweep all eight scheduled matchups. Could the Devs stem the embarrassment?

Travis Zajac was left wide open in the slot and made no mistake to open the scoring. TJ Oshie went hard to the cage and finished deftly over the shoulder of Blackwood to tie the game. Conor Sheary got some puck luck to give the Caps their first lead. Alex Ovechkin slammed home a loose puck on a power play to extend the lead.

Yegor Sharangovich shot through a screen to bring the Devils back into the game. Carl Hagelin struck shorthanded after Garnet Hathaway set him up splendidly. Evgeny Kuznetsov slid home the Caps fifth goal off a slick feed from Ovechkin. Jesper Bratt capitalized on some nonsense behind the Caps net to cut the deficit to two again. Travis Zajac got their fourth.

Caps beat Devils 5-4!

  • That first period was ugly. The Devils are a bad team playing purposefully without one of their best forwards and yet the Caps spent about 90-percent of the opening frame scrambling in their own zone.
  • Ilya Samsonov had to make 17 stops in the first period and about six of those stops were from shots that seemed to go in when the Caps struggled against the Islanders last week.
  • The Caps with the Dmitry Orlov and Justin Schultz pairing out there at five-on-five in the first were out-attempted 14 to 0, out-scoring chanced 6 to 0, and out-high danger chanced 4 to 0.

  • The majority of the second period was better but without heroics from their young goaltender, the Caps would have been down two or more goals after forty minutes. The Caps grabbed a two-goal lead and then decided to forget they still had more of the period to play.
  • The numbers won’t really show it but I thought Conor Sheary was the Caps best skater in this game. He was rewarded with some puck luck after his one-timer hit a Devils player in front and caught MacKenzie Blackwood wrongfooted. It was his eighth goal of the season in his 35th game.
  • Alex Ovechkin scored the 19th goal of his season and the 725th of his career, tapping home a loose puck on a man advantage. The goal was also Ovi’s 265th career power-play goal which tied Brett Hull for the second-most power-play goals in NHL history. Only Dave Andreychuk at 274 remains in front of the Great Eight.
  • I’ve given Sammy props twice already in this recap but he needs even more love for the save he made on Damon Severson. It was so good that Severson immediately went down the tunnel to punish a wall with his stick that is now likely in 17 different pieces. Goodness gracious, Sammy. That was ridiculous.

Next up for the Caps should be a fiery affair with the New York Islanders. I very much hope they don’t show up with the same effort they did in the last date with the Isles.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Devils

Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington

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