The New Jersey Devils continued their perfect start to the shortened NHL season with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals in snowy Newark, NJ, on Friday night. Ilya Kovalchuk scored just just over 20 seconds left in the extra session on a beautiful feed from Marek Zidlicky to seal the win. Stephen Gionta and Patrik Elias added goals for New Jersey.
The Devils overtime win kept the Washington Capitals win less to start the season under new head coach Adam Oates.
The defending Eastern Conference Champions are now off to their first 3-0 start since the 2002-2003 season, the last time they won the Stanley Cup.
The Devils were guilty of some sloppy and undisciplined play in the game, but managed to take advantage of a few mistakes by Washington and a power play opportunity to get timely goals. Martin Brodeur was also stellar in net once again, allowing 2 goals on 28 shots. The 40-year-old Brodeur has only allowed three goals in the first three games and currently has a 0.96 goals against average and a 96.2 save percentage.
Krystofer Barch made his Devils debut and finished with only 5 shifts and 3:28 of ice time.
Cam Janssen, Peter Harrold, and Adam Larsson were the scratches for New Jersey and Adam Henrique remains on the injured reserve.
The Devils will now travel to Montreal for a 6:00 p.m. match-up with the Canadiens on Sunday evening and look to improve to 4-0-0 on the season.
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