For the first time this season, the Capitals find themselves saddled with consecutive losses. The New Jersey Devils downed Washington by a 3-2 count on Saturday night at Capital One Arena, striking for a pair of power play goals to win for the ninth time in their last dozen games.
Tomas Tatar scored on a power play in the first period and he set up ex-Cap Brenden Dillon’s goal in the second to pace the Devils’ offense, but Dougie Hamilton’s power-play goal late in the second period was the backbreaker. Hamilton’s game-winner came just four seconds into a New Jersey man advantage and marked just the second time in 20 games this season the Caps’ penalty killing unit was nicked for multiple power-play goals against in the same game.
New Jersey has scored multiple power-play goals in six of its 23 games this season, including three of the last four.
Devils goalie Jake Allen picked up his fifth win of the season – and third in his last four starts – with a 23-save performance on the night.
“I liked our game a lot tonight,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “At 5-on-5, I thought we carried the majority of the play. We had some really good shifts in the offensive zone, a ton of them.
“You’ve got to tip your cap; their goaltender played fantastic, especially late in that third period. I thought we could have done a bit better job of finding shot lanes, getting some shots through, and then finding some secondary pucks. But a lot of the process tonight – for me – was positive.”
The Caps scored first, and they scored last. But in between, New Jersey struck three times, sandwiching power-play goals around Dillon’s tally.
Matt Roy’s first goal as a Capital gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 13:52 of the first, beating Allen on a right point shot that glanced off the glove of Nolan Foote on its way to the back of the cage.
In their first eight games this month, the Caps went shorthanded a total of 17 times. But they’ve faced 15 shorthanded missions in their last three games now, and while they got away without a dent while going shorthanded seven times in Utah earlier in the week, New Jersey’s prolific extra-man group picked them apart at times, getting nine slot shots on net during those five man-advantages.
Charlie Lindgren stopped each of the first seven shots – many of them from the slot – on New Jersey’s first full power play of the night, only to have Tatar sweep home a puck that was teetering on the goal line with eight seconds remaining on the advantage, squaring the score at 1-1 at 16:31 of the first.
Dillon gave the Devils the lead for good at 7:08 of the second, floating a left point shot toward the net and seeing it deflect in off Caps’ defenseman John Carlson.
Four seconds into New Jersey’s third man advantage of the game, Nico Hischier won a left dot draw, Jesper Bratt nudged it to Hamilton, and the defenseman fired it home from the slot to make it a 3-1 game at 15:42 of the middle frame.
Washington put forth a strong push in the third, but it was interrupted by a couple more penalty killing missions. The Caps only had one full two-minute power play on Saturday night, and they cashed in to pull a goal closer at 4:54 of the third when Connor McMichael converted Carlson’s cross-crease feed at the back door.
“I saw the [defenseman] in front – I don’t know if he fell or whatever – but I don’t think he saw me,” recounts McMichael. “But I don’t think he saw me. I saw Johnny hold onto the puck, and I just snuck back door, and Johnny made a hell of a play.”
The Caps stressed the Devils throughout that power play, retaining possession and executing a few retrievals to keep it alive until McMichael lit the lamp to make it 3-2.
Allen made two of his best stops of the game after that, denying Andrew Mangiapane with the glove just ahead of the midpoint of the period, and thwarting McMichael’s bid for the tying goal on a one-timer from the right dot.
New Jersey also laid out the sticks and bodies in front of Allen; the Devils were credited with 28 blocked shots, with 14 of their 18 skaters recording at least one. Half of those 28 blocks came in the third period, and Dawson Mercer and Hischier each laid out to block a drive in the final minute.
“First Jake Allen saves the game for us with a huge save,” says Devils’ coach Sheldon Keefe. “And then Mercer and Nico with great blocked shots, sacrificing to make sure we get the points. That’s the kind of efforts you need to close out games.”
When it was all said and done, the Caps were left pointless on a two-game homestand; they absorbed a pair of low-scoring, one-goal losses.
“Their [defensemen] like fronting pucks from the point,” says McMichael of the Devils. “They don’t really tie you up; they just get in front of the puck. I think that was a huge thing for them, and we knew that coming in. We were trying to get pucks around them, but just didn’t seem to get enough.”
