Toonstruck 1 » Nicklas Backstrom’s 200th NHL

COLUMBUS Carl Soderberg Jersey , Ohio (AP) goal was a game-winner.Backstrom got a desperation, cross-ice pass from T.J. Oshie and beat Sergei Bobrovsky with 43 seconds left to lift the Washington Capitals over the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Tuesday night.Brandon Dubinsky tied the score for Columbus late in the third period and the game appeared headed to overtime before a wide-open Backstrom snapped in a shot from the bottom of the right circle.”Oshie picked it up and fed me back door,” said Backstrom, who got his 12th goal and 40th point of the season.The goal capped a game in which Columbus was the dominant team on offense, outshooting the Capitals 39-25. But the Blue Jackets squandered four power plays, two of them late in the final period.Braden Holtby made 37 saves, and John Carlson and Tom Wilson added goals as Washington rallied to break a two-game skid and hang onto first place in the Metropolitan Division.Backstrom gave the credit to Holtby.”In the third there where we needed him the most, he really stepped up and showed why he’s the best goalie in the league,” Backstrom said. ”That’s just the way he is. When you need him the most, that’s when he steps up.”Bobrovsky had 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost four in a row and nine of 11. They’re still in playoff contention, but so are all the teams in the division.”A kick in the stomach,” coach John Tortorella said. ”That one hurts.”Washington (31-17-5) won the first leg of a home-and-home this week with Columbus (27-22-4).David Savard got his fourth goal of the season 1:58 into the game with a rocket from the high slot that beat Holtby.It took the Caps only about three minutes to even the score Gabriel Landeskog Jersey Kids , taking advantage of one of the worst penalty-killing teams in the NHL. Carlson got his eighth of the season on a power play with a hard one-timer from beyond the right circle.Wilson gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead five minutes into the second. Skating fast into the slot, he got a crisp pass from Alex Ovechkin and tapped a backhand between Bobrovsky’s pads before the goalie could get all the way down to the ice.On the other end, Holtby was solid. The Blue Jackets outshot Washington 17-7 in the second period. They went hard to the net repeatedly but were unable to get the puck to bounce their way.Holtby kept them in it, and Backstrom won it.”That was more of the playoff, determined feel that we want from our hockey club, and the way we want to play the game,” Oshie said. ”They tied it up late and no one (hung) their head. We lined up for the next faceoff and away we went. It’s a good feeling to have.”Tortorella said he liked the way his team played and sees signs that it is coming around.”We just have to keep our composure and keep on finding our game, because our game is coming,” he said. ”I think we’re close.”NOTES: Josh Anderson and Wilson threw off their gloves and slugged each other briefly until Anderson went to the ice in the first period. Both got five minutes in the box. … Backstrom is the fifth player in Washington history to reach 200 goals … Evgeny Kuznetsov, with a secondary assist on Wilson’s goal, has seven points in the last five games. … D Taylor Chorney and forward Chandler Stephenson were scratches for the Capitals. … The Blue Jackets scratched D Scott Harrington and forward Markus Hannikainen.UP NEXTCapitals: Hosts Columbus on Friday.Blue Jackets: At Washington on Friday.— NEWARK, N.J. (AP) With the New Jersey Devils‘ first playoff appearance since 2012 starting to look like an early exit, Taylor Hall came up big – just like he has done all season.Hall had a goal and two assists http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-j.t.-compher-jersey , setting up Stefan Noesen’s game-winner with 7:05 play, and Cory Schneider made 34 saves in shoring up the goaltending and leading the Devils to a 5-2 victory over the penalty-prone Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night in Game 3 of their best-of-7 first-round series.The Devils scored four third-period goals in cutting Tampa Bay’s series lead to 2-1. Game 4 will also be played at the Prudential Center on Wednesday.Hall, appearing in the playoffs for the first time since being the No. 1 overall pick in 2010, downplayed his role.”It’s not my first playoff win, it’s ours as a group,” said Hall, who had a career year in goals, assists and points. ”We had some confidence coming back on home ice with how we played to finish the regular season. It’s a great feeling. We’re still down 2-1. We still have a lot of room to go but it’s a nice start.”The Devils had a lot of contributors.Rookie Will Butcher had a power-play goal earlier in the third to tie the score 2-all. Blake Coleman and Ben Lovejoy added empty net goals late. Schneider only gave up two power-play goals in taking over for Keith Kinkaid and giving the Devils a chance in this series.”It’s huge. You could see there at the end it getting a little nasty similar to the last game,” Schneider said of the win. ”We’ve got the emotional involvement now. We’re on each other’s nerves. It’s going to a series.”Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos each had a power-play goal and an assist for the Lightning, who allowed the Devils to go on seven power plays. Nikita Kucherov added two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves in the game that had a major scrum with 23 seconds to go.”At the end of the day you give them that many power play chances and then you give them a 5-on-3, it’s a good chance they are eventually going to get one,” Stamkos said. ”They got one and then they got momentum.”Hall was the Devils’ MVP during their stunning run from the worst team in the Eastern Conference to the postseason in a year Youth Matt Nieto Jersey , and he didn’t disappoint in their biggest game of the season.Hall skated down the right boards, avoided a check by Tyler Johnson in center ice and found Noesen in the left circle with a cross-ice pass that the forward one-timed past Vasilevskiy.”He’s a good player and good players are going to make plays,” Lightning center Brayden Point said. ”He had a good night tonight. He is a guy we have to watch, know when he is out there and take away his space.”Butcher had tied it at 4:03 of the period, just 24 seconds after the Lightning were penalized for having too many men on the ice during a penalty kill.”We were our own worst nightmare tonight,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.The Lightning, who scored on 3 of 4 power plays in the first two games, converted on two more in Game 3.Stamkos gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead just 38 seconds into the third with a shot from the left circle that squeezed between Schneider’s arm and body and dribbled into the net. It was his first goal of the series.Tampa Bay, which never trailed in winning the first two games, took the lead again 42 seconds into the second period on Killorn’s third power-play goal of the series and fourth overall. Kucherov sent a pass from behind the goal line that Killorn redirected into the net before Schneider could move.Hall tied the game 1-all with an unassisted goal at 12:24. Vasilevskiy made an excellent stop on a shot from near the blue line by Kyle Palmieri. The puck was misplayed by the Lightning and went to Hall between the circles and he ripped a shot past Vasilevskiy.Hall could have had more. He hit the crossbar on a first-period breakaway.NOTES: Center J.T. Miller of the Lightning had to leave the ice late in the second period after sustaining a facial cut. He returned for the third period. … Devils captain Andy Greene had assists on goals by Noesen and Lovejoy. … Killorn and Johnson each skated in their 50th career playoff game. … C Cory Conacher replaced the injured Ryan Callahan (upper body) in the Lightning lineup. … Devils F Michael Grabner, who was acquired from the Rangers in February, was a healthy scratch after playing in the first two games. Mirco Mueller also sat as New Jersey dressed six defensemen instead of seven used in Game 2.—