"I think the last 10 minutes of the first period, we kind of changed the momentum and we started playing the right way," says Ovechkin. "I think we started putting pucks deep, we forechecked, we play physical and the goals come."
Indeed they did, and the three power-play goals overwhelmed a beleaguered New Jersey penalty killing outfit that entered the game dead last in the league with an anemic kill rate of 64.9% on the season. After being dented for three more extra-man tallies on Sunday, that figure dropped to 59.5%.
"There is no doubt," sighs Devils coach Lindy Ruff. "It's something that we've got to fix. We've obviously got some structure issues. We've got some confidence issues right now. I think some of the players are second-guessing themselves, and we've just got to free that up as a staff and get everybody back on the same page."
Washington's Sunday victory was its third in four games, and it helped erase any lingering bad taste from a subpar outing in a loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday. Despite his long wait between starts, Anderson showed no signs of cobwebs and helped the Caps to a much needed win in the tight East Division standings.
"I thought he played a really good game," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of Anderson. "He gave us a chance to win, especially early on. The first 10 minutes we were a little bit slow out of the gate, and then the next 50 minutes I thought we were pretty good. But he made some big saves in there and he gave us a chance. He did a good job today."