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Nylander nets pair as Capitals cool off Devils

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:04 AM NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New Jersey Devils' winning streak ended when their comeback heroics ran out.

Michael Nylander scored two goals and the Washington Capitals cooled off the Devils by posting a 5-2 victory on Tuesday.

Defenseman Mike Green, Eric Fehr and Brooks Laich each scored a goal and set up another while Alex Ovechkin notched two assists for the Capitals, who improved to 6-1-1 over their last eight contests.

"As we go on here, we seem to be getting better and finding our game more," said Green, who leads all NHL blue-liners with 16 goals.

"It's great to get the victories and be rewarded for it."

Brian Rolston and captain Jamie Langenbrunner netted a goal apiece for the Devils, whose season-high eight-game winning streak was halted.

"We had a bad night," New Jersey coach Brent Sutter said. "It was pretty well through the whole lineup. I'm still trying to figure out why we played like this tonight, especially against a team one point up on us in the standings."

Scott Clemmensen turned aside 21 shots, but the Devils ran out of their magic coming off back-to-back overtime victories. In both games, Langenbrunner had notched the game-winner.

They had won five of the first six games in their run by at least two goals, and trounced the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens by three goals apiece last week.

After finishing on top in two previous close contests, New Jersey fell into an early hole and never recovered in this one.

"That's definitely not the way we want to play," Langenbrunner said. "We're definitely a better team (playing with) a lead. But that's the way it works sometimes. You'd rather (the winning streak) end playing well against a team and the team beats you."

Green and Laich each beat Clemmensen in a 2:14 span in the first period and Nylander gave Washington a 3-0 lead two minutes into the following period by firing a wrist shot into the vacant net from the low slot.

"It's something I should have been doing for many years, many years," Nylander said. "When you're shooting, you see the puck go in. We had three goals on the power play so that was a big part of the game."

Rolston cut the deficit 8:20 into the second with a hard slap shot in between the faceoff circles and Langenbrunner later converted passes from Travis Zajac and defenseman Bryce Salvador by beating Jose Theodore with a wrister on the doorstep 41 seconds into the third.

Nylander silenced New Jersey's comeback efforts by netting his second goal of the night, wristing a shot past Clemmensen from the right circle with 9:01 remaining.

"He doesn't like to shoot," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said of Nylander. "We have a few of those guys. And then we have one guy (Alex Ovechkin) that shoots it every chance he gets it, so he makes up for those guys."

Setting up the power play for Nylander's goal, Mike Rupp was whistled for goaltender interference despite clearly being tripped on his way toward the net.

"No question the video shows he was tripped on the play," Sutter said. "We get a call against us that should have gone the other way."

Fehr then secured the victory with an empty-netter with 70 seconds left in the contest, enabling the Capitals to extend their winning streak to three games.

Theodore finished with 32 saves.