Kuznetsov Nets Pair to Help Caps Down Devils, 4-3

Washington's trio of Russian skaters supplied all the offense on Thursday night at Capital One Arena as the Caps prevailed 4-3 over the visiting New Jersey Devils in the front end of a set of back-to-back games between the two teams.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored twice - including the game-winner midway through the third period - and Dmitry Orlov and Alex Ovechkin each scored as well as the Capitals claimed their 12th victory in their last 14 games. For Kuznetsov, Thursday's performance was his first two-goal game in nearly 15 months and gives him nine points (three goals, six assists) in his last eight games.
"I think I start to understand what the coach wants from me," says Kuznetsov. "After that long break from COVID it wasn't easy to get back in hockey shape. I hope I'm going to continue to grow and I hope the team is going to play much better and we can be successful.
"It was nice to get a couple of goals, but at the end of the day we got two points. That's all that matters right now."
After a four-day break between games, the Caps started Thursday's game inauspiciously. New Jersey's Yegor Sharangovich hit the goalpost with a shot try just 20 seconds into the game, and just over a minute later, the Devils grabbed a 1-0 lead when Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek hiccupped while trying to play the puck just above the goal crease. Vanecek hesitated, then whiffed on a pass attempt to defenseman John Carlson, enabling the Devils' Nick Merkley to poke it past him for a 1-0 New Jersey lead at 1:23 of the first.
Washington responded quickly to get the game tied up. Daniel Sprong got in on the forecheck and put some heat on Devils defenseman P.K. Subban, taking control of the puck and pushing it out to Justin Schultz at the right point. Schultz went across to partner Orlov, who crept down to the top of the left circle before releasing a well-placed wrist shot through traffic, beating Mackenzie Blackwood and knotting the game at 1-1 at 3:10.

The Caps weren't able to do anything with a power play opportunity shortly thereafter, and they went 10 and a half minutes without generating a shot on goal after that power play. The Devils failed to cash in on a pair of extra-man chances of their own later in the frame.
New Jersey jumped back on top at 6:20 of the second period when Miles Wood snuck a no-angle shot through Vanecek on the short side, firing from down along the goal line on the right side. As they did after the Devils' first goal, the Caps responded quickly to tie the game once again.
The Caps capitalized on a New Jersey turnover when Carlson alertly swatted away an intended Pavel Zacha feed in the Devils' zone, poking it to Sprong in the right circle. Sprong quickly fed Alex Ovechkin at the opposite dot, and the Caps' captain cranked a one-timer home from his office at 7:15 to make it a 2-2 game.
"I thought about shooting again," says Sprong, who called his own number and scored on a 2-on-1 with Ovechkin against New Jersey here on March 9. "But he was on his one-timer side, and the [defense] was pretty far off of him. He has an absolute missile, and his wheelhouse is so big you can throw it anywhere. It went in, and it was a good goal by him."

Less than five minutes later, the Caps took their first lead of the game. Once again, Sprong was in the midst of the scoring play, picking the pocket of Devils defenseman Ryan Murray at the left point and sending Brenden Dillon off on a 2-on-1 with Ovechkin. Dillon fed Ovechkin, who fired from the top of the right circle. Blackwood made the stop, but the rebound came back to the front where Kuznetsov collected it in the slot, patiently skated lower on the left side and then fired it home when he had more net and less of an angle.
Washington carried that lead into the third, and the Caps played their best period of the night while protecting that one-goal cushion. But a weak cross-checking penalty on Nick Jensen put New Jersey on the power play just past the midway point of the final frame, and the Devils took advantage of the break, tying the game at 3-3 when Jesper Bratt fired a one-timer home from the right dot at 11:04.
Once again though, the resilient Caps struck back swiftly to regain the lead. Just 62 seconds after Bratt's goal, Schultz made a neat feed from the right half wall, hitting Kuznetsov right on the tape in the slot. The center man deftly redirected it home to make it a 4-3 game at 12:06.
The quick responses - particularly to the first two New Jersey goals - probably helped Vanecek shake of a couple of difficult and uncharacteristic goals against for him. And for the Caps, it felt good to bail out a guy who has given them a chance to win every game he has started this season.
"Vitek would probably like another crack at those," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "He's been so strong for us, he has played such solid hockey, and he had a couple squeak in on him. So I think the response from our guys is really good, because they know that Vitek has been there for us when things haven't been perfect. That was a good answer for him and for our team, for somebody who has been so strong for us all season."

"I think for sure after that first one," says Caps forward T.J. Oshie. "We weren't playing well those first couple of shifts, and goalies make mistakes once in a while. He made the mistake there, and then he came in after the first and apologized after he probably made five or six real good saves over the rest of the period. I think it was important for us to get that first one for him."
The Caps successfully closed out the Devils the rest of the way, improving to 11-0-4 in one-goal games this season.
"We played a good game," says Devils coach Lindy Ruff. "We knew that they were going to have a little bit of a push in the second. I thought we came back and were playing hard, and got the power play goal we needed. But obviously we didn't execute our breakout, the puck stayed in the zone and they got a lucky bounce."
The two teams tangle again on Friday night at Capital One Arena.