Matt Niskanen saved the Washington Capitals from adding insult to injury, scoring quickly in overtime to lift the Caps to a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils, to whom the home team surrendered the game-tying goal with an even 30 seconds left in regulation.
The Caps (40-24-10) pulled to within one point of Metropolitan Division third-place Pittsburgh, who fell to Carolina 5-2 and put themselves five point clear of eighth-place Ottawa, which also lost, 5-1, to the division-leading New York Rangers and Boston, 3-2 losers to Anaheim.
Niskanen took a cross-ice feed from Karl Alzner, teed it up, and ripped a slapshot — which appeared to get tipped along the way — past Devils goalie Cory Schneider for his fourth of the season.
“I thought [the New Jersey Devils] were way better than us,” coach Barry Trotz said. “We looked sloppy. We didn’t have much of a hard work ethic. (We) weren’t diligent on our responsibilities and that was probably one of our sloppier games that we played. I do not want to take anything away from New Jersey. New Jersey was better than us today. We got two lucky goals. In a sense, we did [toy with fate tonight].”
Washington led after one period, on Karl Alzner’s career-high fifth goal and 20th point of the season. Just 1:35 into the second period, Eric Fehr’s shot made it through a ton of traffic to get to the back of the net for his 19th goal of the season, just two off his career-high.
But then, the Caps stopped playing.
With a chance for the Caps to all-but finish out the Devils with a power play late in the second, New Jersey made it a one-goal game with 5:19 to go in the frame, as Travis Zajac stuffed home a rebound off a Scott Gomez short-handed shot.
The Caps then went back into a shell, allowing the Devils chance after chance throughout the third period, getting outshot in the stanza 12-5. The final one was the only one that mattered, as Steve Bernier rammed home the tying goal as the Devils played 6-on-5 in the waning seconds.
“I know I wasn’t happy with that game, and I know [the players] shouldn’t be,” Trotz said. “If they are, then we’re fooling ourselves. We didn’t play very well. Like I said, I do not want to take anything from New Jersey. They did some really great things. Our decision-making was poor. Our execution was poor. Our resilience and determination was average at best. We had too many guys, who weren’t getting it done tonight and fortunately, we had a couple guys that were able to.”
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