This wasn’t the Devils’ night, it was Nicklas Backstrom’s. Backstrom scored the go-ahead goal and then added an assist on the night Washington celebrated his 1,000th career point,…
WASHINGTON — This wasn’t the Devils’ night, it was Nicklas Backstrom’s.
Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson also scored for the Capitals, who began the night 14 points ahead of Columbus for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Vitek Vanecek stopped 29 shots. “It was obviously a great night and fun night,” Backstrom said. “All emotional at the start and then play a game right after, but then obviously it finished the way me and the team wanted.”
Backstrom put Washington ahead when he found space inside the left faceoff circle and beat Daws through traffic to the top right corner.“We gave a good effort to come back there in the third scoring that goal to make it 4-3 and then we had chances to tie it up,” Severson said. “But overall the game could’ve went either way, to be honest.”