After coming off of a loss in Washington on Friday night, the Devils and Capitals rematch in Prudential Center ended more eventful for the Devils, who have suffered four straight losses and one win since Martin Brodeur’s injury sidelined him. This night proved to be a good night for Scott Clemmensen to prove himself in net.

“My gut feeling and decision,” Coach Brent Sutter said of keeping Clemmensen in goal for the second time in a row against the Capitals. “Was that we come back with Clemmers. It had zero to do with Weekesie.”

“He’s doing what we’re asking him to do. He has a very calm personality to begin with and he brings it onto the ice,” Sutter said.

Both Jose Theodore and Clemmensen let five goals past them in Saturday night’s contest. This is the first time this season that Theodore allowed more than two goals past him. There was a scary moment in the second period after a scramble in the crease had several players down on the ice in front of the net. That scramble led to a Devils goal from Patrik Elias, but after all of the players down in the crease got back up again, Theodore remained down and didn’t get back up after several minutes. After speaking with the medical trainer, Theodore got back up again and played through the remainder of the game with no signs that he was hurt.

Over the past few games for the Devils, the offense has been lackluster. Zach Parise has been the main goal scorer for the team. His teammates that are known to be quality goal scorers have not been putting up the numbers so far this season. Sophomore David Clarkson has had a great, intelligent season so far. With four goals to his name, he is currently the third top goal scorer for the Devils, with Parise and Elias ahead of him.

Elias’ game has just recently picked up. He tallied two goals in Saturday’s contest, giving him seven goals this season. This is a definite turnaround of events for the Devils. A problem cited many times by the coach and players regarding the consistent loss record these past couple of weeks had to do with their failure to capitalize on the many opportunities afforded to them. Saturday was the first time since losing Brodeur that they began to capitalize on as many chances as they were given.

In the first period, Clarkson quickly got the Devils on the scoreboard at 1:09. “We scored right away,” Elias said. “That was very important.”

This quick goal in the period was an example of how the Devils start the fire on the team to get them moving, something that would be repeated again in the second stanza.

The Capitals found an opportunity during the power play to tally their first goal of the game from Tomas Fleischmann at 6:59 in the first period, assisted by Nicklas Backstrom. The Capitals inched further ahead at 19:09 with a goal from Alexander Ovechkin, assisted by Tyler Sloan (his first career NHL assist) and Backstrom.

Heading into the middle stanza, Jamie Langenbrunner found the back of the net 49 seconds into the period. With Capitals’ Mike Green in the penalty box for hooking Elias, Elias notched a power play goal at 3:27, a goal that was in need of review. With all of the bodies down in front of the net, it was hard to tell if perhaps someone had possibly pushed the puck in with their hand and not a stick. But after a review of the video, it was apparent that the puck had come out of the crease, Elias had found it with his stick as he was sailing past the net on his knees, and pushed the puck in through the traffic.

Victor Kozlov tied the game 3-3 at 16:43, assisted by Backstrom, within mere seconds of the puck dropping at the face-off circle in the Devils zone.

In the final period, both teams went back-to-back in scoring to remain in the game. Elias notched his second goal of the game at 6:06 after carrying the puck into the Capitals zone, beating the Caps defenseman and sailing the puck up and over Theodore’s shoulder and finding the top shelf of the net. Backstrom tied up the game again at 8:11. Brian Gionta tried to end the tie breaker at 11:40, when he notched the Devils’ fifth goal of the game, but was stumped with one second left in regulation by Ovechkin.

“Every time Ovechkin has the puck in the offensive zone,” Sutter said. “It’s dangerous.”

With Ovechkin’s back-door goal, the game headed into overtime, with Washington only making two shots on goal, and no shots on goal for the Devils during the extra period. The game then headed into the shootout.

This is where Clemmensen was able to prove that he was a NHL worthy goaltender. He stopped all three Capitals shooters (Viktor Kozlov, Ovechkin and Boyd Gordon), while Theodore let Parise slip past and stopped Elias. Parise’s patience during shootouts was what has helped him beat goaltenders in the past. He does not make a move until the goaltender makes a move – that was how he beat them every time.

Clemmensen took a gamble when he skated up and poke checked the puck from Gordon, the Caps third shooter, ending the game swiftly. This gave the Devils their first win in five games.

“It’s always tough to win in this league,” Clemmensen said of the shootout win. “In the shooutouts, you’re going to go up against the top key players in the league.”

Capitals’ Backstrom had a five-point game, with one goal and four assists. This marked ten points for Backstrom in the last 3 games. Elias and Travis Zajac both had three-point games. This marked Zajac’s fourth career game with three assists.

“This evening was done right,” Langenbrunner said of the win. “We did a lot of great things.”

“Maybe we had a little bit of luck on our side,” Elias said of the game.

“[It’s] good to get the win,” Clemmensen said. “[It] does a lot for your psyche.”

The Devils are taking the next few days off and will host back-to-back home games starting on Nov. 20 against the Florida Panthers and then the New York Islanders on Nov. 21 before heading on the road for the following two weeks.

Notes

Martin Brodeur was in attendance at Saturday night’s game, showing off his cast on his left arm.

Brian Rolston will be sidelined even longer after three days on the ice proved to be uneventful and worsened the injury. He has stopped skating for now. Rolston has a high right ankle sprain.

No word yet on Bobby Holik’s return.