Junior Capitals Exorcise Devils

Henrik Tallinder scored a hat trick while Patrick O'Sullivan scored a goal and added two assists to lead the Washington Junior Capitals to a 7-4 victory over the New Jersey Junior Devils on Day 120. The win moves Washington to 25-29-8, four points out of the playoffs with 20 games remaining.

Greg Mauldin gave the Caps a great start when he scored from Fabien Laniel and Maxim Orlov at 3:10. Washington made it 2-0 just less than 11 minutes later on Cory Urquart's goal from Branko Radivojevic. Mikhail Kuleshov added an unassisted marker at 16:34 to make it 3-0 heading to the intermission.

The Capitals continued the onslaught in the second period when Tallinder scored his first from Sean Bergenheim and O'Sullivan at 1:10. New Jersey pulled a goal back just 23 seconds later through Keith from Abbot and Pohanka, and Abbott's shorthanded goal from Thompson at 5:16 made it 4-2. Tallinder then scored his second from Bergenheim and O'Sullivan at 8:00, before completing the hat trick from Brett Carson at 17:40 to give Washington a 6-2 lead. Clouthier scored a late goal for the Devils from Thompson and Rosehill to make it a three-goal game after 40 minutes.

New Jersey tried to mount a comeback in the final period, and Keith's power play tally from Goldade and Vondrka at 9:20, but Washington answered with a power play goal of its own to put the game away. O'Sullivan was the scorer from Bergenheim and Carson just 32 seconds after the Devils scored.

Brad Topping stopped 25 shots to earn the win and improve to 13-20-4. Jeff Drouin-Deslaurier made just 11 saves in the loss for the Devils. Juer Penko stopped seven shots in relief.

The Junior Capitals return to home ice on Day 124 against New Jersey.