GAME STORY: Capitals 3, Devils 2

NEWARK, NJ - The Devils held the Washington Capitals to only one shot in the third period, but couldn't score one of their own to tie it up, losing 3-2 on Sunday afternoon. Yegor Sharangovich and Mikhail Maltsev scored for the Devils in a losing cause.

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WHAT'S NEXT
The Devils continue their five-game home stand with a meeting with the New York Islanders on Tuesday. You can watch on MSG+ and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 7:08 PM ET.
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"I thought the effort was a lot better than yesterday," said Devils forward Kyle Palmieri. "The execution was better. You're going to spend time in your D-zone, especially against a team as talented as that, but we did a good job limiting the rush chances. They buried the opportunities they got and that wasn't the case for us going the other way."
Three minutes into the game, Mackenzie Blackwood made a big stop on Alex Ovechkin on a two-on-one from point-blank range after Ovechkin quickly took a feed from Lars Eller and rifled it on goal.
Mikhail Maltsev picked up a nice stretch bank pass from P.K. Subban and fired it past the glove of Caps netminder Ilya Samsonov to open the scoring with 13:15 to go in the first. Pavel Zacha had the other assist, extending his scoring streak to 10 games.
Washington tied the game after Jakob Vrana fired a shot on goal from the rush before depositing his own rebound with four minutes to go in the first.
"We knew yesterday wasn't acceptable and we wanted to come out and right the ship today. In a mini-series like this, you can't give teams easy outs and I think that's what we did this weekend and we weren't able to salvage any points out of it," Palmieri added. "This is a big week of hockey for us with three games coming up."
After one, shots were 13-7 for Washington.
Nicklas Backstrom took a feed from Tom Wilson on a two-on-one and put it into the open cage to put Washington in front early in the second but 48 seconds later, Yegor Sharangovich used his speed to drive into the Caps zone. His shot from the hashmarks beat Samsonov to tie the game up.
Pavel Zacha was called for holding 20 seconds after the Devils goal, giving the Capitals the first power play of the game.
After successfully killing off that penalty, the Devils received their first power play of the night. Dmitry Orlov cross-checked Miles Wood.

Nate Bastian and Brenden Dillon finally dropped the gloves midway through the second after battling throughout the game. Neither combatant had much of an edge with some big punches thrown in the corner.
Late in the second, Devils had a chance on one end as Nikita Gusev was denied by Samsonov at the top of the crease. The play went back the other way where Alex Ovechkin buried a shot past Blackwood to put the Caps back in front 3-2.
"We hurt ourselves. The one goal, I just didn't like. Second period turnover at the blueline. Puck management wasn't good," said Ruff. "It might have cost us a point when you look at how the game was going. From the start of the game, they were right on top of us."
After two, shots on goal were 22-17 for the visitors.
In the third, the teams traded power play chances but shots on goal were held to a minimum.
"We could have got a lot of energy from our power play but you saw both teams a little low on energy," noted Ruff. "Both teams' power plays struggled. Even in the third, we had two or three great opportunities. There was a lot of good. Our penalty killing the last few days did a lot of good things but our power play let us down."
The Devils had four shots while the Caps had only one. Shots on goal in the entire game were 23-21 for Washington.
"I don't remember the last time I've been around a game where the shots in the third period were 4-1 but both teams had multiple power plays. It's a crazy number," said Ruff of the third-period shot count.