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Written by Justin Creech
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Tuesday, 11 December 2007 |
Washington, D.C.—The Washington Capitals followed their throttling of the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday with another solid showing last night. The Capitals used two second period goals and a bit of fortune in the third period to defeat the red hot New Jersey Devils 3-2 at the Verizon Center.
With the game tied at 1, defensemen Jeff Schultz’s shot early in the second period deflected off Devils defensemen Colin White’s stick and past goalie Kevin Weekes, who was starting in place of Martin Brodeur who had played Sunday night in the Devils loss to the New York Rangers, and entered the game with a 2-13-1 career record against Washington.
The goal was Schultz’s second in two games and gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead 53 seconds into the second period. Left wing Quintin Lang scored with 1:52 to go in the period on a rebound of a John Erskine shot from the top left point. Lang came skating in front of Weekes and grabbed the rebound before putting a backhand shot past the sprawling netminder. The goal was Lang’s first NHL tally and proved to be the game winner.
“The energy and the effort was fabulous,” said interim coach Bruce Boudreau of the Capitals dominant second period in which they out shot the Devils 10-2. “I just thought they really played with each other and for each other and we rolled four lines and everybody was talking on the bench it was a beautiful sight.”
The Capitals have outscored their last two opponents 5-1 in the second period after being outscored 31-19 in the second in the team’s first 28 games. The win raised the Capitals record to 5-3-1 since Boudreau took over for Glen Hanlon and tied them with the Los Angeles Kings for least amount of points in the league with 24. Despite still being at the bottom of the standings, the Capitals have earned 11 points in nine games under Boudreau, after earning just 13 in the seasons first 21 games under Hanlon.
Lang, 28, who has spent the majority of his professional career in the East Coast league and the American Hockey league, scored his first career goal in just his eighth career NHL game, fifth with the Capitals.
“It’s been a lot of hard work in between and a lot of patience,” said Lang. “I’m giving it everything I’ve got. Every shift I’m pretending it’s my last shift out there and that’s how I’ve got to play.”
The game got dicey in the third period as the Capitals (11-17-2) needed a bit of help from the officials to hold off the Devils, who came into the game having won nine of 10 and had not loss in regulation in their last 11 outings.
Fifty two seconds into the period it appeared Devils defensemen Mike Mottau had cut the Capitals lead to 3-2 after an attempted rebound of a Jamie Langenbrunner shot went off Mottau’s left skate and into the net.
However, after review, it was determined that Mottau kicked the puck in past Kolzig, therefore nullifying the tally and keeping the Washington lead at 3-1. David Clarkson did get the Devils (16-11-3) to within one a minute and 26 seconds later after beating Schultz to a loose puck behind Kolzig and using a wrap around shot to score, but that was as close as the Devils would get.
Boudreau talked after the game about the Capitals needing to match the Devils push in the third period.
“We figured we had to get through the first five minutes [of the third],” said Boudreau. “We didn’t, but once we got going we played the last six minutes with three lines and they all played really hard and we didn’t give them much.”
Capitals goaltender Olie Kolzig, who finished with 20 saves to earn his ninth victory of the season, said the nervous moments in the third can be chalked up to the team still learning how to win.
John Madden got the Devils on the board first 5:56 into the first period. Madden took a centering pass from forward Brian Gionta, who was to the left of Kolzig and one-timed it past the Capitals netminder.
It didn’t take long for the Capitals to answer though as rookie center Nicklas Backstrom scored with just 2:48 later to tie the game. Viktor Kozlov’s attempted centering pass went off Colin White’s skate to Backstrom, who deeked right and then beat Weekes with a pretty backhand.
The goal was Backstrom’s 10th point in the Capitals last nine games after registering just nine points in the season’s first 21 games.
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