Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Recap: New Jersey vs. Washington

Nicklas Bergfors scored two power-play goals in the third period, as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Washington Capitals, 3-2, at Prudential Center.

Brian Rolston also tallied, while Travis Zajac collected two assists for the Devils, who have won three straight and six of their last seven games. Martin Brodeur made 26 saves in the win.

Tyler Sloan and Tomas Fleischmann lit the lamp for the Capitals, who had recorded a point in each of their previous nine outings (6-0-3).

Semyon Varlamov stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced for Washington, which played its first contest without Russian sniper Alex Ovechkin in the lineup.

The two-time reigning Hart Trophy winner and Rocket Richard Trophy recipient, Ovechkin missed just the fifth game of his career -- third because of injury -- with an upper-body strain that he suffered in Sunday's overtime loss at home to Columbus. He is listed as week-to-week.

"Guys didn't come to play. Whether they're feeling sorry for themselves cause Alex is not in, I don't know," said Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau. "This isn't a one-man team, but those guys have got to understand that."

Bergfors took a feed from Zach Parise and ripped a shot over the glove of Varlamov, breaking a 1-1 tie with 8:40 remaining in the third.

The Swede tallied again via the man advantage four minutes later, redirecting a Zajac slap shot past the Washington netminder.

Fleischmann scored with 1:37 left in regulation, but the Capitals failed to produce an equalizer.

"We came through with two power-play goals," said Rolston. "Special teams are so important in this day and age in hockey. There are so many things called these days. If you can capitalize on your power play, you're going to win a lot of hockey games. That was the difference for us tonight."

Sloan's tally enabled the visitors to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The play began with Washington captain Chris Clark winning a battle to keep the puck in the New Jersey zone. Mathieu Perreault, making his NHL debut, picked up the loose disc and made a drop pass to Sloan, who fired a wrister from the left circle that beat Brodeur on the stick side with 2:50 remaining.

Rolston tied the game when his centering feed from behind the Washington cage deflected off of Capitals defenseman Mike Green and past an unsuspecting Varlamov at 3:33 of the second period.

Game Notes