Capitals recover for OT win after Devils score three straight to tie

WASHINGTON-- Jakub Vrana scored his second goal of the game at 1:30 of overtime to give the Washington Capitals a 5-4 win against the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena on Tuesday.

Vrana took a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov at the blue line, skated down the slot and beat Scott Wedgewood.
"Just jumped on the ice, took advantage of the [defenseman], he was kind of standing still there on the blue line," Vrana said. "'Kuz' made a great pass right on my tape, so I could outskate the D and score."
T.J. Oshie, Daniel Sprong and Dmitry Orlov scored for Washington (15-6-4), which led 4-1 in the third period. Nicklas Backstrom had two assists, and Vitek Vanecek made 27 saves for the Capitals, who recovered for their sixth win in seven games.
"We just stopped playing. 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," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "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. It was just a bunch of things."

Janne Kuokkanen had a goal and an assist, and Yegor Sharangovich, Miles Wood and Damon Severson scored for New Jersey (8-11-3), which has lost six of seven. Travis Zajac had three assists, and Wedgewood made 25 saves.
"I loved their fight. One heck of a point," Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. "If you look at the chances in the third period, even though we made it 4-4, I think [Dmitry] Kulikov hit the post, and we had another great opportunity. We controlled the puck through overtime and just turned it over there, and in 3-on-3 that happens."
Wood made it 4-2 at 5:47 of the third period when he scored off a pass from Jesper Bratt on the rush. Sharangovich got behind the defense and beat Vanecek from the slot at 10:17 to trim the lead to 4-3, and Severson tied it 4-4 with a wrist shot from the point at 12:20.
The Devils outshot the Capitals 16-5 in the third period.
"We came out and played aggressive in the third, made some plays, used our speed," Zajac said. "Probably the way we should've played in the second. It was a really good effort still by us to come back in the third. It showed a lot about this group to be able to do that against a team like that."
Oshie gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 17:22 of the first period when he deflected Justin Schultz's shot from the point, ending an 0-for-12 stretch for the Washington power play.

Vrana made it 2-0 on a one-timer from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from John Carlson at 7:42 of the second period.
Sprong entered the zone 2-on-1 with Alex Ovechkin, opted to keep the puck and beat Wedgewood with a wrist shot to give the Capitals a 3-0 lead at 10:36, and then appeared to say something to Ovechkin during the celebration.
"I looked him off in the morning skate and he wasn't too happy," Sprong said. "Two-on-1, the [defenseman] played [Ovechkin], and their 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, and even the goalie thought so."
Kuokkanen pulled the Devils within 3-1 when he scored off a pass from Zajac at 12:44. Orlov scored on a wrist shot from high in the right circle to make it 4-1 at 15:03.
"We weren't giving up breakaways, we weren't giving up 2-on-1s," Ruff said of the second period. "But we made some poor puck decisions which cost us and that was probably the difference."
NOTES: Vrana has scored five goals in his past six games. ... The Devils power play was 0-for-3 and is 0-for-18 in the past six games. ... The Capitals have won the four games against the Devils this season. ... Carlson has 499 NHL points (110 goals, 389 assists) and is four assists from passing Mike Gartner for fourth in Washington history. ... Orlov has scored in two straight games after scoring once in 18 games.