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Capitals hold off Devils for second straight win

Dec 11, 2007 - 5:10 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Washington Capitals had three different goal scorers en route to their second straight win with a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Monday.

Rookie Nicklas Backstrom scored in the first period and defenseman Jeff Schultz and Quintin Laing added second-period tallies for the Capitals, who have won two straight games for just the third time all season.

Goaltender Olaf Kolzig stopped 20 shots for his ninth victory of the season for Washington.

"This was a big character win for us," Kolzig said. "The confidence is starting to come, especially here at home. If we continue to play like that on the road, we can slowly crawl back into this."

Trailing, 3-1, early in the third period, the Devils pulled within one at the 2:18 mark on a goal by David Clarkson.

However, Kolzig made the slim margin stand up, making eight saves in the final period and sending New Jersey to its second straight defeat following a league-best nine consecutive wins.

"We had to meet their push," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We know a team that's undefeated basically for 10 games, they never go down easy."

After John Madden had given New Jersey a 1-0 lead at the 5:44 mark of the first, Washington scored three unanswered goals.

Backstrom answered for the Capitals with a power-play goal, scoring on a backhander from in front of the net to tie the game at the 8:44 mark of the first period. Viktor Kozlov fed a pass from behind the net that glanced off the stick of a New Jersey defenseman and ricocheted to Backstrom, who tallied his fourth goal of the season.

The Capitals then took control in the second period, outshooting the Devils, 10-2, in the frame.

"The energy and the effort was fabulous," Boudreau said. "I just thought they really played with each other and for each other. We rolled four lines and everybody was talking on the bench. It was a pretty sight."

Schultz scored his third goal of the season just 53 seconds into the second when he rocketed a slap shot from just inside the blue line at the right point past New Jersey goaltender Kevin Weekes.

Alex Ovechkin and John Erskine assisted on Schultz's tally that was helped by a screen from left wing Matt Pettinger, who limited Weekes' view of the puck.

Laing doubled the Capitals' lead to 3-1 with his first career goal with 1:52 left in the second. He collected a rebound of Erskine's shot from the point and put a backhander from point-blank range past Weekes.

"It was kind of a harmless shot, but he (Weekes) didn't grab it so I grabbed it and shot it and saw it in the back of the net," Laing said. "I would have liked it to have been the insurance goal, but the game-winner I'll take. It was nice that we got the win with it."

"I'm really happy for him," Boudreau said. "Here's a guy who's toiled for most of his life from the low minors in the East Coast (Hockey) League to the American (Hockey) League to getting a chance here now to score the winning goal in an important game for us. I thought it was a really cool thing."

Each team had a goal disallowed during the game.

The Capitals were denied a potential tally with 18 seconds remaining in the first period when the whistle blew during a pileup in front of Weekes just before Washington's Tomas Fleischmann poked the puck into the net. After officials reviewed the video, the goal was disallowed.

The Devils had a goal taken away 52 seconds into the third period when Mike Mottau stuffed his own rebound past Kolzig and into the net. Mottau had his initial shot stopped by Kolzig and the rebound bounced off his skate and into the net. However, officials nullified the tally upon review, ruling it was kicked in.

"He made a nice save with the pad and the rebound came hard," Mottau said. "It just happened to hit my skate. ... Nothing intentionally because I didn't see where the puck was after it came off the pad. I did feel something, but I didn't kick."

Devils coach Brent Sutter disagreed with the call but said it did not cost his team the game.

"It's not the right call," Sutter said. "It hit the other foot. It didn't hit the foot that showed the kicking motion, and it's clear on the replay. He shoots the puck, it's a rebound and it goes off the skate and goes back in.

"That's not why we lost tonight. Our second period was brutal. We had 18 brutal players in the second period. They left our goalie hung out."

Weekes finished with 21 saves for the Devils.