The Washington Capitals move into first place with a win in New Jersey

The Washington Capitals defeated the New Jersey Devils again in Newark with a 6-5 final. The 82-game regular season series ended 2-2 with the away team winning each time, and last night was no different.

Andrew Mangiapane scored his sixth goal of the season at 6:19 to give the Caps a 1-0 lead on assists from Hendrix Lapierre and John Carlson. Nico Hishier equalized at 10:54 and after the first half it was 1:1. Caps were 17-5 in their first 20 games.

Justin Dowling gave the Devils a brief lead at 2:38. Then the Caps brought the decisive kick-off thanks to the power play. Connor McMichael struck at 9:49, with Pierre Luc-Dubois and John Carlson assisting him. It was McMichael’s 14th of the season. Jakob Chychrun gave the Caps the lead at 10:56 with his eighth goal of the season at 10:56, assisted by Lars Eller and Rasmus Sandin.

Then Washington scored another power play goal at 19:47 of the second period, this time by Rasmus Sandin and Ivan Miroshnichenko. The Devils scored a power play goal from Stefan Nosen at 2:03 of the third period, then Jesper Bratt tied it at 4:15. Taylor Raddysh then reached the 13:54 mark for the fourth time this season. Martin Fehervery and John Carlson assisted there.

Pierre-Luc Doubis scored his third goal of the season with assists from Aliaksei Protas and Raddysh after 14:04 minutes. Stefan Noesen scored another goal in the power play after 16:45, but by then it wasn’t enough.

In the second period, the Caps were ahead with a total of 10-8 shots, while the Devils were ahead in the third period with 14-5 shots. Caps would be ahead overall at 32-27. Washington had a 60 percent advantage on the power play, going three-for-five at 60 percent, while New Jersey went two-for-three at 66.7 percent.

Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves on 27 shots, for a save percentage of .815. With a record of 17-6-1 and 35 points, Washington moves into first place in the Metropolitan Division. Caps will be back in action with the puck dropped on Tuesday, December 3 against the San Jose Sharks at Capital One Arena at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.