Devils Earn Split Of Weekend Series With Washington Capitals
The New Jersey Devils dropped the first of its two-game series against the Washington Capitals by a score of 3-1 on Friday night at the Prudential Center.
StoryStream
Live
3Total Updates since November 11, 2011
Important2
Updates2
Articles1
All Updates3
Do you want major updates to this story in your Facebook News Feed?
Washington, DC (Sports Network) - David Clarkson netted the decisive goal in the fourth round of the shootout, as the New Jersey Devils salvaged the back end of a home-and-home set with a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center.
New Jersey goalie Johan Hedberg denied Nicklas Backstrom to begin the fourth round of the penalty-shot tiebreaker. Clarkson then skated down the middle of the ice, pulled the puck to the backhand and lifted a shot past Washington's Michal Neuvirth to secure the extra point for the Devils, who had their three- game winning streak snapped with a 3-1 home loss on Friday night.
The Devils erased a 2-0 deficit in the second period with tallies from Petr Sykora and Ryan Carter. Hedberg made 15 saves for the win.
"I thought it was a real gritty effort," said New Jersey head coach Peter DeBoer.
Troy Brouwer and Jason Chimera scored in the first period for Washington, which has dropped three of four. Neuvirth stopped 17 shots.
Sykora put New Jersey on the board at the 12:18 mark of the middle stanza, then Carter scored on a deflection in the high slot to tie things up with 1:06 remaining.
The Capitals were on the power play for the final 1:47 of regulation after Clarkson was called for holding. But New Jersey killed off the penalty to get the game into overtime.
Brouwer stole the puck in the Devils zone and scored on a breakaway 6:30 into the contest. Washington went up 2-0 when John Carlson's shot deflected in off Chimera at 16:10 of the first.
"It's disappointing to have this outcome," said Capitals forward Brooks Laich.
The New Jersey Devils played host to the Washington Capitals on Friday night at the Prudential Center in Newark to kick off game one of their two-games series.
And they’re not off to a good start.
That because the Capitals were able to pull ahead in the third period and never looked back, winning by a final score of 3-1.
The Devils drew first blood in the opening frame when Adam Larsson (assisted by Dainius Zubrus and Patrik Elias) wristed one in at the 13:06 mark to put the homers up one-zip.
Washington tied it up in the second stanza thanks to Alex Ovechkin’s wrister (assisted by Dennis Wideman and Nicklas Backstrom) with less than two minutes to play in the period.
