Capitals Hang On To Top Devils

The Washington Capitals didn't use a prescribed success formula, giving the New Jersey Devils nine power-play chances Saturday.

And the Caps were burned twice of scores by the NHL's second-ranked power play. Still, Washington won 3-2.

Peter Bondra scored short-handed to spark a three-goal first period outburst that carried the Caps to the win.

"It's not what we wanted to see, especially against a skilled team like New Jersey," Bondra said of the nine penalty kills. "We killed them and Ollie (Kolzig) was there for us early to make some unbelievable stops."

Kolzig, who finished with 33 saves, wants to see his club stay out of the penalty box.

Chris Simon and Jeff Halpern also scored for the Caps, 7-3-2 in their last 12 games.

New Jersey, which lost its second straight following a nine-game unbeaten streak, got goals from Scott Niedermayer and Sergei Brylin.

Bondra opened the scoring at 10:12 with a short-handed goal. He had a clear lane when Devils pointman Petr Sykora fell down, springing Bondra for a breakaway.

Simon swatted home his own rebound from the slot for a power-play goal at 16:5. Halpern followed up 46 seconds later as he took a backhand centering feed from Ulf Dahlen to beat Martin Brodeur.

The 3-0 deficit was too much for the Devils to overcome.

"We played well in the first period," Brodeur said. "It's tough on the special teams when they scored on the power play and on the penalty kill.

"It's hard to recover but we deserve a lot of credit for hanging in."

The Devils, who misfired on their first five power-play chances, connected on the next two to cut the Caps' lead to 3-2 on second period goals by Niedermayer and Brylin.

Niedermayer abandoned his point position to crash the slot to swat a shot past Kolzig at 13:40. Brylin took a return pass from Alexander Mogilny at 18:07 and drilled a shot from the slot past Kolzig.

The Caps played outstanding defense in the third period, limiting the Devils to only five shots.

"In the third, they really shut us down," Brodeur said. "Kolzig was the big reason they stayed ahead the whole game."

Notes