The Washington Capitals needed a spark in their afternoon matinee with the New Jersey Devils. Enter Ryan Leonard.

Leonard had a highlight-reel goal that changed the momentum of the game, and Washington surged from there to a 4-2 victory over the Devils.

Here are the takeaways.

Ryan Leonard wanted to step up for his team, and did just that with a spectacular goal to pull his team into the game.

After a clear down ice, Washington's power play reset for one last rush, and that's when Leonard took matters into his own hands. Picking up a slingshot pass from Jakob Chychrun, Leonard rushed up ice and went coast-to-coast before beating Luke Hughes, cutting to the inside and deking the puck past Jake Allen to tie the game.

The goal was Leonard's third of the season, and he's tied with Alex Tuch for the team lead in scoring with seven points through eight games. The 21-year-old has points in five of his last six and continues to establish himself as one of D.C.'s top forwards.

With Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matt Roy remaining out of the mix and Justin Sourdif also missing from Saturday's game due to illness, the Capitals again stressed the "next-man up" mentality, while keeping their tweaked lines from the other night.

Those lines continue to find chemistry, and it helped pave the way for a surge in the second period.

Just under two minutes into the middle frame, Vincent Desharnais go the puck up to Alex Ovechkin, who gained the zone before sliding a cross-ice feed right on the tape of Ilya Protas. Protas made no mistake, roofing his first of the season to give Washington a 2-1 lead as that line continues to click.

Soon after, Dylan Strome got his first of the season and breathed a sign of relief, as he got to the front and finished off a picture-perfect, passing play from new linemates Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou. Tuch leads the Capitals with seven points, and Kyrou is starting to find his game with four points in his last four outings.

Both goals came within 4:36 minutes of each other and set the tone for the remainder of the game, as the Capitals controlled the tempo from there on out.

Later in the period, Boone Jenner extended his hot streak, when he tapped home a point feed from Desharnais for a 4-1 lead. Jenner now has four goals in his last five games.

The Capitals also got big games from Vincent Desharnais and the blue line, as Desharnais not only potted a couple of assists, but moved the puck well, kept it out of harm's way and helped shut down the likes of Jack Hughes and the Devils' top talent.

After giving up an early goal at the end of a power play, Washington locked in, blocking plenty of shots, dictating play and shutting down New Jersey's opportunities. Entries were also hard to come by for the Devils as the Capitals did a good job of taking up space, breaking up passes and clearing the zone.

It was also a strong game for Logan Thompson, who came up with a handful of big stops and stopped 29 of 31 shots to shut down New Jersey, who made a big push in the third.