POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 4, Devils 0

Doubling Down on The Devils - The Caps came out of a rare four-day gap between games to host the New Jersey Devils in a set of back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday nights at Capital One Arena. After taking a 4-3 decision from the Devils on Thursday, the Caps put forth one of their better overall performances of the season on Friday, whitewashing New Jersey 4-0 behind a 24-save outing from Ilya Samsonov.

Alex Ovechkin stayed hot with a pair of goals, Washington struck for multiple goals in the opening period for the first time in six games, the penalty killing unit was solid in keeping the Devils at bay in the middle period and early in the third, and the Caps put forth a second straight assertive third period to deny the Devils any hope of a comeback.
"We've been playing pretty well, with our forwards always covering for our [defensemen]," says Caps blueliner Nick Jensen. "The last couple of games, we've had a really good F3. That allows us to play with confidence and to keeping more pucks in, and that leads to a lot more offensive time in the zone. And then when they do get the puck out, we are forcing them to make plays through us, and mostly what they got was they have to get it in, and then we can break it out.
"I think we've done a really good job in the neutral zone too, making it hard for them to get through. And the last time we played this team [on March 9], they were breaking it through pretty well, but these last couple of games we did a really good job of forcing them to turn it over or to dump it in. Those are a couple of things that we've done really well."
Washington has won all six of its games against the Devils this season, with two more to come on the Capitals' upcoming five-game road trip to the New York metro area.
Brick Walls - Making his seventh start since coming off the NHL's COVID protocol list in late February, Samsonov improved to 7-1-1 on the season and 6-1-0 since returning to action. His Friday night shutout of New Jersey is the sophomore's second of his NHL career; he also blanked Carolina at Capital One Arena on Jan. 13, 2020.
Friday night's whitewash of the Devils was the 16th shutout of New Jersey by a Washington goaltender in Capitals franchise history. That's most shutouts for the Caps against any opponent; the Devils had been tied with Montreal (15) with that distinction prior to Samsonov's clean sheet.
Move On Up -Ovechkin scored Washington's first and fourth goals in Friday's victory, the 148th multi-goal game of his career, moving him ahead of legendary Hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe for fourth place all time in multi-goal games.
Ovechkin's game-winner against the Devils was the 116th of the Caps' captain's career, putting him two behind Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito for the third most in NHL history.
His second goal of Friday's game gave him 811 even-strength points for his NHL career, pushing him ahead of Brendan Shanahan for fourth place among all left wingers in League history. Only Johnny Bucyk (922), Luc Robitaille (881) and Brett Hull (817) have more even-strength points.
Ovechkin has nine goals in his last eight games, and he now has 17 on the season and 723 for his NHL career. He has quietly moved to within four goals of the league lead, currently shared by Toronto's Auston Matthews and Edmonton's Connor McDavid (21 each).
Ovechkin has scored in eight of his last 10 games, and has 10 goals and a dozen points since March 1, trailing only Colorado's Mikko Rantanen (11) for most goals over that span. This month marks the 26th time in Ovechkin's NHL career that he has hit the double-digit level in goals for the month and the first time he has done so since he bagged a baker's dozen (13) in January of 2020. Only four players in League history have recorded more months with double-digit goal totals: Wayne Gretzky (38), Mario Lemieux (32), Marcel Dionne (28) and Mike Bossy (28).
Dionne is in fifth place all time with 731 career goals, and Ovechkin is now within eight of matching the longtime NHL pivot and Hockey Hall of Famer.
Finally, Ovechkin has notched three game-winning goals in his last five games. Only one Caps player has ever had more game-winners over a five-game span, and that was Bengt Gustafsson who had four game-winners in a five-game span from Feb. 7-18, 1986.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears were on the road on Friday night, facing the Baby Pens in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Hershey skated off with a 3-1 victory.
Philippe Maillet put the Bears on the board first, netting his first goal of the season at 13:21 of the first period with help from Kale Kessy and Brian Pinho.
After a scoreless middle period, the Baby Pens knotted the score in the second minute of the final frame. Midway through the third, Hershey's Matt Moulson scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal on a Bears power play. Coming at 10:03, Moulson's fifth of the season came via assists from Maillet and Joe Snively, putting Hershey up 2-1.
Kody Clark bagged his sixth of the season into a vacant WBS cage at 18:55 of the third with a solo assist from Pinho to account for the 3-1 final.
With a 30-save effort in the Hershey nets, Zach Fucale improved to 5-1-0-0 on the season.
Hershey is back in action on Saturday afternoon from Giant Center when it hosts the Baby Pens in a rematch.
By The Numbers - John Carlson led Washington with 22:12 in ice time … Ovechkin led the Caps with four shots on net and nine shot attempts … Brenden Dillon and Garnet Hathaway laid four hits each, leading the Caps … Jensen blocked three shots to lead Washington.