While the New Jersey Devils' points streak ended meekly, the
Detroit Red Wings powered to their seventh straight win.
The Devils went home on Monday night without a point for the
first time in 11 games, losing 2-3 to the young Washington
Capitals.
"Our second period was brutal," Devils coach Brent Sutter said.
"We had 18 brutal players in the second period. They left our
goalie hung out."
The Devils lost for the second consecutive night after winning
nine straight. They earned one point on Sunday during a 0-1
overtime defeat in New York against the Rangers. New Jersey hadn't
been beaten in regulation since another 0-1 loss on November 16 to
the New York Islanders.
The Red Wings jumped out to an early lead behind goals from
Tomas Kopecky and Valterri Filppula, and beat the Nashville
Predators 2-1 with strong penalty killing.
"I actually thought we were really ready to play," Detroit coach
Mike Babcock said. "All in all, when you go through our lineup we
had a lot of strong contributions against a good team. It was a
good win for us."
In other National Hockey League games, it was: Bruins 4, Sabres
1; Ducks 4, Blue Jackets 3 (in overtime); Maple Leafs 6, Lightning
1; Stars 5, Oilers 4 (in OT); and Kings 4, Canucks 2.
Washington's Jeff Schultz, who had just one goal in his first 59
NHL games, scored for the second straight game, and Quintin Laing -
playing just his eighth NHL game - netted his first overall.
Bruce Boudreau coached both players at Hershey in the AHL, and
was especially pleased for the 28-year-old Laing.
"That's a guy who's toiled for most of his life (in) the low
minors," Washington's interim coach said. "To score the winning
goal in an important game for us, that's a really cool thing."
Laing scored the final goal for the host Capitals, converting a
rebound at 18:08 of the second period to make it 3-1.
Just 52 seconds into the third period, it appeared that New
Jersey's Mike Mottau had scored, but after a review of several
minutes, it was ruled that the puck had gone in the net off his
skate.
Nicklas Backstrom scored a powerplay goal for Washington, and
John Madden and David Clarkson scored for New Jersey.
In Nashville, the Red Wings started strong despite playing the
night before in Carolina.
Kopecky opened the scoring 7:10 into the game, firing a
one-timer from inside the right circle that found the net between
goalie Dan Ellis and the left post.
Filppula was awarded a penalty shot after he was tripped by
Jerred Smithson while he skated toward the net at 15:06 in the
first. Ellis went low to block the shot, and Filppula shot it over
the goalie for a 2-0 lead.
The Predators cut the Detroit lead to 2-1 with 24 seconds left
in the second period on Martin Gelinas' short-handed goal.
Detroit, the only NHL squad with 20 or more wins (22), went
7-for-7 killing penalties.
"The No. 1 thing for us was our penalty kill was great," goalie
Chris Osgood said. "We got in a lot of shooting lanes and pushed
them to the outside. Nashville tried a few cross-ice passes and we
were there to deflect them away or get a stick on them. We did a
good job with our sticks in blocking shots."
(Shanghai Daily December 12, 2007)