"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."