Caps Down Devils, 4-1

For the third time in the young season, Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek carried a clean sheet into the third period on Thursday night in Newark. For the third time, he was dented for a goal against in the final frame, but he claimed his second win of the season in a 4-1 Washington win over the Devils at Prudential Center.

Daniel Sprong sparked the Caps' attack, setting up Washington's first goal and scoring its third of the game on a breakaway midway through the second period. All four Capitals goals came at 5-on-5, giving them nine such tallies in the last two games. Four games into the young season, the Caps have yielded only two goals against at 5-on-5.
"That was good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "With seven minutes to go in the game, they had 17 shots, so I thought defensively the 5-on-5 was pretty good. Offensively, we were able to chip away at it.
"They're a good, young, fast team. They play fast, and that takes away your offense at times just by how quickly they can defend or track or gap up, or back pressure from behind. There were some good things that we did offensively as well."
Thursday's tilt in Newark pitted a pair of teams who hadn't had to play from behind at any point in the early going. The two sides played more than four minutes without a whistle to start the game, and seconds later the Caps saddled the Devils with their first scoreboard deficit of the young season.
After Lars Eller won a defensive-zone draw, Trevor van Riemsdyk sent Sprong down the right wing wall with a high flip to neutral ice. Sprong tried to feed Mantha from the half-wall after gaining the New Jersey zone, but he had difficulty taming a bouncing puck, and Dougie Hamilton laid out to deny the pass. Sprong stayed with it, collecting the puck behind the New Jersey net, and feeding Mantha in front. From just above the paint, Mantha netted his second goal in as many games with a backhand chip shot at 4:14, a dozen seconds after the Caps won that draw in their own end.

"I was more screaming [expletives] in my head, because the puck didn't stay on my stick," recounts Sprong. "But we stuck with it. Mo stayed in front and I was able to find him, and he finished it off."
Just over five minutes later, the Caps doubled their lead. Evgeny Kuznetsov carried out of the Devils' zone, regrouping in neutral ice before sending Dmitry Orlov back into the zone along the left wall. Orlov went to Alex Ovechkin in the high slot, and Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood stopped the Washington captain's shot, but kicked it right to an opportunistic Orlov, who kicked it from his skate blade to his stick blade before issuing a backhander to the shelf for a 2-0 Caps advantage at 9:33.
The middle 20 minutes was a bit more of a struggle for the Capitals, who were in their end of the ice more than perhaps any other period of the young season to date. Vanecek made a great save from in tight on Andreas Johnsson early in the period, and while the Devils were putting more heat on Washington near the midpoint of the frame, Sprong singlehandedly and simultaneously relieved that pressure while extending the Caps' lead to three.
From the right-wing corner, Tomas Tatar tried to roll the puck around the wall and out to Hamilton at the right point. But Sprong got a stick on it, forcing it to hop over Hamilton's blade and creating a footrace that the flat-footed blueliner wasn't going to win. Sprong collected the loose puck just inside the New Jersey line, carried to the cage and tucked it five-hole on Wedgewood for a 3-0 Washington lead at 9:56.
"[Tatar] came up the wall, and I think he kind of missed his pass," says Sprong. "But it came right towards me, so I just knew I had to chip it behind Hamilton. but then I just had to speed around him. Then coming in a breakaway and it went in."
In the third, Washington extended its lead on the forecheck. Ovechkin rolled the puck around the back of the net for Kuznetsov, and it rolled off his stick and out to Devils defenseman Ryan Graves. But before Graves could settle it and make a play, Wilson pokechecked him and Kuznetsov quickly slipped it home on the short side for a 4-0 Caps lead at 9:16 of the third.

Vanecek's bid for a shutout went by the wayside on a New Jersey power play - the only Devils man advantage of the game - late in the third. Janne Kuokkanen scored from the slot with 6:42 remaining in the third to account for the 4-1 final. Vanecek made one more brilliant stop on Jimmy Vesey seconds later to keep the Devils at bay.
With a 25-save effort, Vanecek improved to 2-0-1 on the season and 5-0-0 lifetime against the Devils.
"I felt pretty good," says Vanecek. "I was confident. The guys were playing really good. The second period was a little bit tougher; they got some chances but that's normal. I had to make a big save to help the team through, but they helped me in the first and third periods."
The Caps' sophomore goaltender has stopped 57 of the 58 shots he has faced at 5-on-5 this season.