Devils Vs Capitals 11/14/2008 Review

Capitals celebrate goal by Brooks Laich.
November 14, 2008 Photo by Luis M. Alvarez / AP

Devils 1 - Capitals 3

The Washington Capitals kept their winning streak alive, beating the New Jersey Devils at home Friday night. For the winning goalie Jose Theodore, it was his first start since November 1st. He turned in his best performance of the season, and got the support he needed from his teammates.

The Caps looked good all around. They played responsibly for the most part, not making too many mistakes. As a matter of fact, they only committed two of the three total penalties called in the whole game.

Brooks Laich, who switched from winger to center for this game, earned the hard hat that's awarded after each game to the player who puts in the best effort. He is the only one to have received the honor twice so far this season. His two point night started off with him deflecting in an Alex Ovechkin wrister at 9:52 in the first period for a power play goal. The hard hat could've gone to a few players, including Tomas Fleischmann. Fleischmann had several good scoring chances, and he did manage to bury one early in the second period.

After Flash's goal, things seemed to slow a bit in the second period. The pace picked back up in the third, and the Devils capitallized on a bad Caps line change. The lack of Washington defenders on the ice led to a breakaway for New Jersey's Patrik Elias. Elias made his chance count, getting the lone Devil's goal at 11:55. The Capitals were able to hold onto their one goal lead. With 20.5 seconds left in the game, and Devils' netminder Scott Clemmensen off the ice for the extra attacker, Alex Ovechkin hit the empty net.

The Devils host the Capitals in tonight's second half of the home and home series. Other than the injury suffered by Alexander Semin, let's hope things go as well as last night for the Caps.