Capitals win wild high scoring game in New Jersey

The Washington Capitals game was back and fourth last night against the New Jersey Devils. You thought the Caps would win after the first period. You thought they would lose after the second period. But they turned it on in the third period en route to a 6-4 win.

Anthony Mantha got the scoring started with his first goal of the season at 6:37 with a nice rip coming down the ice. Aliaksei Protas had the assist.

The Caps doubled their lead with with a goal from Dylan Strome at 15:52. It was fed with a cross ice pass from Alex Ovechkin as Strome glided from the left to the right to rip it in. Tom Wilson had the secondary assist.

Sonny Milano got in on the scoring fun at 17:28 for his first of the season. It was a snipe from the left corner and it was set up by T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov. 3-0 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 8-2.

The second period was all Devils. Hunter Shepard got his first NHL start of his career. It was his hardest period of the night but other than that he was brilliant with 18 saves on 22 shots for a .818 save percentage. Thanks to the Caps scoring in the third period, Shepard earned his first NHL win.

Tyler Toffoli got the Devils on the board at 4:31. Timo Meier got one at 5:19. Nico Hischier tied the game at 6:42. Toffoli added his second goal of the game at 10:01 to give the Devils a 4-3 lead which would be the score after two periods. The Devils outshot the Caps 14-7 in the second period.

The third period saw the Caps outshoot the Devils 10-6 while they outshot them 25-22 overall. Most importantly the Caps scored to turn what could’ve been a loss into a big win over a Metropolitan Division foe.

The comeback started with Strome’s second goal of the game 18 seconds in on the power play. It was his fourth goal of the season as well as in his last three games and it was set up by a nice give n go in front of the net by Evgeny Kuznetsov. John Carlson had the secondary assist.

That goal tied the game. Connor McMichael gave the Caps the lead for good with his second goal of the season at 2:09. This was another give n go this time set up by Mantha with Nicklas Backstrom providing the secondary assist. McMichael finished off the sequence by backhanding it in.

Ovechkin would seal the game with an empty net goal for his second of the season and his 824th of his career. He’s now 70 away from Wayne Gretzky.

The Caps will look to build this momentum as they return to home ice tomorrow night when they take on the Minnesota Wild.