Capitals rating three in third to rally for 6-4 win over Devils

NEWARK, N.J. — Connor McMichael scored the tiebreaking objective early within the third interval and Hunter Shepard made 18 saves in his NHL debut because the Washington Capitals rallied for a 6-4 win over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday evening.

McMichael scored his second objective of the season at 2:09 of the third to place Washington forward 5-4 after Dylan Strome tied the competition at 4 simply 18 seconds into the ultimate interval on the power-play.

Alex Ovechkin added an empty web objective at 18:25, the 824th of his NHL profession.

“Our power play steps up right out of the gate to sort of set the tone for the third period,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery stated. “And then we did enough good things in the final 10 minutes to hang on.”

Washington scored thrice within the first, then the Devils scored 4 objectives within the second earlier than the Capitals scored three extra within the third.

According to OptaSTATS, Washington turned the primary workforce in NHL historical past to close out their opponent by three or extra objectives within the first interval, get blanked by 4 or extra objectives within the second, then shut out their opponent by three or extra objectives once more within the third.

Devils coach Lindy Ruff merely wasn’t blissful together with his workforce’s defensive lapses.

“If we’re going to play like this, we will make it extremely hard on ourselves,” Ruff stated. “I thought we got what we deserved tonight.”

After the 2 fast objectives to start out the third, Washington held on for its second win in six video games because the 27-year-old Shepard – MVP of the Calder Cup playoffs final spring after main the Hershey Bears to the AHL championship – overcame a tough second interval.

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” stated Shepard, who gained NCAA championships with Minnesota-Duluth in 2018 and 2019. “I’m excited to get out there and see my parents, pretty emotional day. To have 13 or 14 people make it here on a day’s notice from Minnesota, it’s quite the support system.”

Tyler Toffoli scored twice for New Jersey and Jack Hughes added three assists. Hughes leads the NHL in scoring with 17 factors, together with 4 objectives.

Washington rolled to a 3-0 first-period lead on objectives by Anthony Mantha, Strome and Sonny Milano.

Mantha opened the scoring at 6:37. Strome made it 2-0 at 15:52, sliding the puck previous Devils netminder Akira Schmid. Milano made it a three-goal margin at 17:28, assisted by T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Vitek Vanecek changed Schmid after the primary interval. Schmid had 5 saves and Vanecek made 14 stops.

The momentum fully shifted in New Jersey’s favor within the second as they erupted for 4 objectives in lower than six minutes.

Toffoli, who scored a hat trick in Tuesday’s 5-2 win at Montreal, put New Jersey on the board at 4:31.

Timo Meier, final season’s key commerce deadline acquisition by the Devils, scored at 5:19 with assists to Jack Hughes and Toffoli earlier than Devils captain Nico Hischier tied the sport 3-3 at 6:42.

Toffoli then scored his sixth of the season at 10:01 with assists from Jack Hughes and his youthful brother Luke to place New Jersey forward 4-3.

“It was a rollercoaster game,” Meier stated. “We just let that momentum swing get away from us.”

The Capitals had managed solely seven objectives of their first 5 video games earlier than notching six on Wednesday.

UP NEXT:

Devils: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.

Capitals: Host the Minnesota Wild on Friday.