Andrew Cristall’s shootout goal in the fifth round of the skills competition lifted the Capitals to a 3-2 preseason victory over the New Jersey Devils at Newark’s Prudential Center on Sunday afternoon. Cristall’s shootout strike allowed the Caps to keep their preseason mark unblemished at 3-0 after they lost hold of a 2-0 second period lead and had to execute some late penalty kills to keep from falling behind.
The Caps have trailed on the scoreboard for only 31 seconds of the 185 minutes of preseason hockey they’ve played to date.
Washington stifled the Devils – who dressed a handful of their top forwards for this game – for much of the first half of the contest before the Devils turned the tables on the Caps thereafter. Even then, Charlie Lindgren made the stops he needed to make to keep the Caps from falling behind, and his teammates defended well, too.
“I thought the first half of the game, I really liked a lot of things we did,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought the second half of the game, the wheels fell off, and it wasn't very good at all. We couldn’t get to our game; it was a struggle.
“So we’ll take the learning moments – especially individually for some young guys that are playing in an exhibition game and can feel it and live it – and we’ll move on.”
Facing a strong and representative New Jersey lineup on the road, a mostly youthful group of Capitals turned in an impressive first-period performance in Sunday’s game. The Caps outshot the Devils 10-2 in the first, and they out-attempted New Jersey by 17-5 – and 13-5 at even strength – despite winning only six of 17 (35%) of their face-offs in the opening frame.
Both of New Jersey’s first-period shots on net came off the sticks of defensemen; New Jersey’s forward group squeezed off just three attempts in the frame. One of those was blocked while the other two missed the mark.
In the back half of the first, Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk drew a holding call in the offensive zone, putting Washington on the game’s first power play. Although the Caps didn’t cash in during those two minutes, they took the lead two seconds after the expiration of that penalty.
When New Jersey netminder Jakob Markstrom shrugged off Graeme Clarke’s shot from the right dot, Caps center Patrick Thomas quickly pounced on the rebound and re-centered it for Clarke as Markstrom was picking himself up off the ice. Clarke fired a shot into a yawning cage at 15:58 of the first to stake Lindgren and the Caps to a 1-0 lead.
Early in the second, the Caps doubled their lead on a sublime transition goal. Washington has defended well, and it has been extremely adept with its collective stick work in its own end thus far in the preseason, and the scoring play started deep in Washington ice when van Riemsdyk swatted the puck off the stick of veteran New Jersey winger Ondrej Palat.
Ryan Leonard beat Palat to the puck on the half wall in the Caps’ end, and the touted rookie then rumbled out of his own end and up the left side of the ice. He expertly shook off defenseman Topias Vilen at the New Jersey line, quickly moved to his forehand and snapped a shot from the left circle to the shelf on the far side for a 2-0 lead at 5:25.
“I saw a little bit of a triangle in between his stick,” recounts Leonard. “And I don't really remember if I caught it or if it like hit the board or something, but I just tried to attack him, use my feet. And then saw an opening glove side, and tried to get it off as quick as possible. And fortunate enough, it went in.”
Although New Jersey generated more zone time in the middle frame, the Caps defended those sequences well, stifling the home team’s attack with positioning and stick work. When Cristall was boxed for tripping late in the period, the Caps again displayed their defensive zone prowess, blocking two shots and forcing a couple of misses during a 55-second delayed penalty in which they were playing with five skaters against six.
“That's kind of the Capitals’ MO,” says Lindgren of the defense in front of him. “I feel like it's tough to get shots on net against us, just with the way we play. We play hard. We pay attention to detail, especially in the [defensive] zone is always lights out. When we're making it hard for the other team to put pucks on net – like we did tonight for a lot of that game -- that's when we're playing our best hockey.
New Jersey won the offensive zone draw to start the power play, and eight seconds and one shot later, it was a 2-1 game. Devils stars Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt combined on a tic-tac-toe passing sequence and captain Nico Hischier supplied the finish from the slot at 15:10.
The third period and overtime were replete with special teams time; the Caps were tasked with four penalty kills – including a 3-on-4 early in overtime – over the game’s final 25 minutes, and Lindgren made the save of the game on one of those power plays. Soon after Nico Daws – who entered the game at the start of the third – denied Aliaksei Protas on a shorthanded breakaway, Hughes and Bratt came up ice together on a 2-on-0 power play rush, one of only a few odd man breaks the Caps have yielded in the preseason.
The two Devils passed back and forth as they converged on the Washington net, and Lindgren hung in and denied Bratt from in tight with a timely right pad stop.
“Couple good players coming down,” shrugs Lindgren of that stop. “I think their goalie made a nice breakaway save right before that, and then yeah, Bratt and Hughes coming down on a 2-on-0, not something you want to see at all. A couple of really good players, but it felt good to keep that one out.”
Seconds after the expiration of a New Jersey power play late in the third, the Devils netted the equalizer when Shane Lachance – stationed at the top of the paint – tipped a Hughes drive past Lindgren with exactly four minutes left.
Carbery and the Caps issued an unsuccessful challenge for goaltender interference, putting Washington right back on the penalty kill late in a tie game. The Caps snuffed out the opportunity, only to go shorthanded again in the opening minute of overtime.
Lindgren stopped all four shots he faced in overtime, and Daws made a dazzling stop on Jakob Chychrun’s shorthanded try on a 2-on-1 rush, setting the stage for Cristall, who scored after P-L Dubois and Leonard opened the shootout with goals.
The Caps are back in action on Tuesday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.
