Vrana's Overtime Goal Salvages Win for Washington

For forty minutes on Tuesday night, the Capitals played the game they wanted to play against the New Jersey Devils, dominating in most areas of the game and the ice and forging a three-goal lead heading into the final frame. But the Caps turned in a ghastly final 20 minutes, and they were fortunate to be heading into overtime with a chance for a second point.

The Devils buzzed the Caps early in the extra session, but Washington's third-period foibles became a cheap lesson when Jakub Vrana hopped off the bench, took a long feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov, skirted New Jersey defenseman Ty Smith and beat Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood 90 seconds into the extra session. Vrana's second goal of the contest gave the Caps a 5-4 win over New Jersey, and two points in their lone home game in a span of 18 nights.

"I just jumped on the ice and took advantage of the [defenseman]," recounts Vrana. "He was kind of standing still there on the blueline. Kuzy made a great play, a great pass right on my tape. I just tried to outskate the [defenseman] and scored."
The win was Washington's sixth in its last seven games.
"In a way, it was a big goal in overtime," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "In a way, we were fortunate to get to the overtime, for the way we played in the third period, so it's got to be better than that."
The first period was virtually bereft of flow, but the Caps still managed to take control of the game territorially, aided by winning 17 of the 25 draws in the first. Washington grabbed a 1-0 lead at 17:22 of the first, getting on the board with a T.J. Oshie tip of a Justin Schultz center point drive.

In the second period, the Caps continued their territorial domination and expanded their lead.
Before the midpoint of the middle period, Washington doubled its advantage with its first 4-on-4 tally of the season. The Caps patiently and crisply passed the puck around the perimeter until a good scoring opportunity presented itself, and when it did, Vrana ripped a John Carlson feed to the back of the net, firing from the right dot at 7:42.
Just under three minutes later, the Caps upped their lead by a goal in an example of good defense leading to an offensive opportunity. Daniel Sprong blunted an Andreas Johnsson shot try, and Kuznetsov collected the puck and sprung Sprong on a 2-on-1 with Alex Ovechkin riding shotgun. If he was tempted to feed the NHL's active leading goal scorer, he didn't show it, firing from the middle of the left circle and beating Wedgewood at 10:36 for a 3-0 Washington lead.

"Well, I looked [Ovechkin] off in morning skate, and he wasn't too happy," says Sprong. "A 2-on-1, the [defenseman] played [Ovechkin], and the goalie decided to take away his side, too. So I just had to hit the middle of the net, and that's what happened. When you go down on a 2-on-1 with the greatest goal scorer, I think everyone thinks that you're going to give it to him. Even the goalie thought so. It was an easy one."
New Jersey got that one back a couple of minutes later, making it a 3-1 game on a Janne Koukkanen shot from the slot at 12:44.
With just under five minutes left in the second, the Caps restored their three-goal cushion on Dmitry Orlov's second goal in as many games, another transition goal. After New Jersey made an errant feed in neutral ice, Richard Panik collected it high in Devils territory, leaving it for Orlov. The blueliner used fellow Russian blueliner Dmitry Kulikov as a screen and fired a dart past Wedgewood at 15:03 for a 4-1 Washington lead.
In the third, the Caps seemed to be stuck in the mud from the outset. Washington killed off a pair of early penalties in the third, but Miles Wood scored off the rush in between those two New Jersey power plays, making it a 4-2 game at 5:47.
Yegor Sharangovich scored from the slot at 10:17 to pull the Devils within one, and Damon Severson tied it with a point shot just over two minutes later, at 12:20. After New Jersey scored three goals in a span of 6 minutes and 33 seconds to wipe out the Washington lead, Laviolette called timeout to have a chat with his team.
"We started playing a little soft," says Oshie. "We were trying to make too many plays. Guys swinging away and not winning battles like we were before that. Most of our goals came from hard work first, and then something opened up for us and we ended up putting the puck in the back of the net. It's definitely nice to get the two points on a night where it's probably a learning experience for us."

The Caps managed to avoid further damage over the final seven-plus minutes, setting the stage for Vrana's overtime heroics. But Washington made getting these two points harder than it needed to be.
"We just stopped playing," says Laviolette. "We went out in the third period and didn't play with the same zip that we needed to, that we played with for two periods. It was just a lot of errors to be honest with you, from mishandling pucks to not executing with pucks to penalties to line changes to … there's just a bunch of things. There's some bad defense in there as well.
"We had our foot on the gas for two periods, and then we took it off. They've got a young, quick, skilled team and they can possess the puck and make plays, and you saw that in the third period."