Rangers Fall To Caps In Wild OT Contest, 4-3
The Rangers reached the official
midway point of their season Saturday afternoon at Madison Square
Garden, and showed plenty of grit and resolve before eventually falling
to the league-leading Washington Capitals, 4-3, in overtime.
Trailing 2-0 after 40 minutes of play the Rangers struck for a pair of goals within the first half of the third period to pull even against a Capitals team which entered play 21-0-1 when leading after two periods.
Oscar Lindberg got the Rangers on the board at 5:54 of the third, hopping off the bench to jump into the offensive zone and bury a cross-ice pass from Dominic Moore. The goal was Lindberg's 11th of the season and first in 13 games, and could not have happened if not for Ryan McDonagh's slick keep at the blue line on an attempted Washington clear.
However Kevin Hayes was then whistled for a high-sticking minor at 7:41. With the chance to seize the momentum, Washington's second-ranked power play instead was denied by a strong Rangers penalty kill, and as The Garden rocked Hayes skated out of the box and directly towards the Capitals net where he sent the rebound of a McDonagh shot into the back of the cage, tying the score, 2-2, at 9:48.
The goal was the seventh this season for Hayes, who recently was scratched for a pair of games, and it was also his first in 18 games. McDonagh earned his second assist of the afternoon on the score.
The roof nearly came off the World's Most Famous Arena when Viktor Stalberg deflected Keith Yandle's slap shot past Washington goaltender Braden Holtby to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead at the 13:11 mark of the third period. Washington challenged that the play was off sides, but video review upheld the on-ice call and The Garden Faithful continued their boisterous celebration.
Washington pulled Holtby for an extra attacker with more than a minute to play, and the move paid off when Nicklas Backstrom buried the rebound of a Justin Willainms shot with just 5.7 ticks remaining on the clock, tying the score 3-3 and sending the game to overtime.
Holtby then gave his team the lift it needed in the extra session, flat out robbing Derek Stepan on a put back of a Rick Nash shot at 1:13 from point-blank range. The Capitals flew the other way with Alex Ovechkin beating Henrik Lundqvist for his second goal of the contest, handing the Rangers a 4-3 defeat at 1:25 of overtime.
Though the Rangers had the puck much more often than Washington, and out-attempted their opponents by a fairly substantial margin, the Capitals played an outstanding defensive game, got timely saves from Holtby, and took advantage of the few scoring chances they had to hold a 2-0 lead through two periods of play.
That was certainly most apparent in the opening period when the Rangers and Capitals played on even terms, with both teams excelling in their respective defensive games, until Washington's Ovechkin scored with 14.8 seconds left on the clock following a Dan Girardi turnover.
Caught behind his own net Girardi chipped the puck out in front--as opposed to rimming the puck around the boards--where a wide-open Ovechkin picked it off and deposited the disc into the back of the Rangers net for one of the easier of his 498 career goals.
If not for a huge stop by Lundqvist with 2.1 seconds remaining, the Rangers could have entered the first intermission down by a pair instead of only one.
New York's best scoring chance came at 10:57 when a Mats Zuccarello power play one-timer caught iron to Holtby's left. Zuccarello also had a great scoring chance 3:07 into the middle period when he was on the receiving end of a home run pass at the Capitals blue line which turned into a partial breakaway. However a great effort by Washington defenseman Tyler Chorney knocked the puck off Zuccarello's stick and into Holtby's pads thus short-circuiting the break.
Derick Brassard, Keith Yandle, and Kevin Hayes all came tantalizingly close to taking advantage during separate scrambles in the slot, but all three failed to even record a shot on goal with their attempts either sailing wide or blocked in front.
Holtby did his part, too, with big-time saves on Dan Boyle and Derek Stepan during an early second-period power play ,which proceeded Washington's second goal of the game.
Defenseman Nate Schmidt sprung Justin Williams on a breakaway, and his shot hit the post before caroming off a sprawled-on-the-ice Lundqvist and over the goal line at 3:56, putting the Rangers in a 2-0 hole.
NONE
shots by period
Period WSH NYR
1st 8 8
2nd 8 10
3rd 14 7
OT 1 1
Total 31 26
Team Stats
Category WSH NYR
Power Plays 1/3 0/3
Hits 27 25
Faceoff Wins 31 28
Giveaways 5 14
Takeaways 7 10
Blocked Shots 18 12
Penalty Minutes 6 6
Three Stars of the Game
1st
Alex Ovechkin
L
G: 2 Shots: 5
A: 0 Hits: 3
PTS: 2 PIM: 0
+/-: 2 TOI: 21:32
Washington Capitals
2nd
Nicklas Backstrom
C
G: 1 Shots: 4
A: 0 Hits: 0
PTS: 1 PIM: 0
+/-: 2 TOI: 21:52
Washington Capitals
3rd
Ryan McDonagh
D
G: 0 Shots: 1
A: 2 Hits: 2
PTS: 2 PIM: 0
+/-: -1 TOI: 23:32
Trailing 2-0 after 40 minutes of play the Rangers struck for a pair of goals within the first half of the third period to pull even against a Capitals team which entered play 21-0-1 when leading after two periods.
Oscar Lindberg got the Rangers on the board at 5:54 of the third, hopping off the bench to jump into the offensive zone and bury a cross-ice pass from Dominic Moore. The goal was Lindberg's 11th of the season and first in 13 games, and could not have happened if not for Ryan McDonagh's slick keep at the blue line on an attempted Washington clear.
However Kevin Hayes was then whistled for a high-sticking minor at 7:41. With the chance to seize the momentum, Washington's second-ranked power play instead was denied by a strong Rangers penalty kill, and as The Garden rocked Hayes skated out of the box and directly towards the Capitals net where he sent the rebound of a McDonagh shot into the back of the cage, tying the score, 2-2, at 9:48.
The goal was the seventh this season for Hayes, who recently was scratched for a pair of games, and it was also his first in 18 games. McDonagh earned his second assist of the afternoon on the score.
The roof nearly came off the World's Most Famous Arena when Viktor Stalberg deflected Keith Yandle's slap shot past Washington goaltender Braden Holtby to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead at the 13:11 mark of the third period. Washington challenged that the play was off sides, but video review upheld the on-ice call and The Garden Faithful continued their boisterous celebration.
Washington pulled Holtby for an extra attacker with more than a minute to play, and the move paid off when Nicklas Backstrom buried the rebound of a Justin Willainms shot with just 5.7 ticks remaining on the clock, tying the score 3-3 and sending the game to overtime.
Holtby then gave his team the lift it needed in the extra session, flat out robbing Derek Stepan on a put back of a Rick Nash shot at 1:13 from point-blank range. The Capitals flew the other way with Alex Ovechkin beating Henrik Lundqvist for his second goal of the contest, handing the Rangers a 4-3 defeat at 1:25 of overtime.
Though the Rangers had the puck much more often than Washington, and out-attempted their opponents by a fairly substantial margin, the Capitals played an outstanding defensive game, got timely saves from Holtby, and took advantage of the few scoring chances they had to hold a 2-0 lead through two periods of play.
That was certainly most apparent in the opening period when the Rangers and Capitals played on even terms, with both teams excelling in their respective defensive games, until Washington's Ovechkin scored with 14.8 seconds left on the clock following a Dan Girardi turnover.
Caught behind his own net Girardi chipped the puck out in front--as opposed to rimming the puck around the boards--where a wide-open Ovechkin picked it off and deposited the disc into the back of the Rangers net for one of the easier of his 498 career goals.
If not for a huge stop by Lundqvist with 2.1 seconds remaining, the Rangers could have entered the first intermission down by a pair instead of only one.
New York's best scoring chance came at 10:57 when a Mats Zuccarello power play one-timer caught iron to Holtby's left. Zuccarello also had a great scoring chance 3:07 into the middle period when he was on the receiving end of a home run pass at the Capitals blue line which turned into a partial breakaway. However a great effort by Washington defenseman Tyler Chorney knocked the puck off Zuccarello's stick and into Holtby's pads thus short-circuiting the break.
Derick Brassard, Keith Yandle, and Kevin Hayes all came tantalizingly close to taking advantage during separate scrambles in the slot, but all three failed to even record a shot on goal with their attempts either sailing wide or blocked in front.
Holtby did his part, too, with big-time saves on Dan Boyle and Derek Stepan during an early second-period power play ,which proceeded Washington's second goal of the game.
Defenseman Nate Schmidt sprung Justin Williams on a breakaway, and his shot hit the post before caroming off a sprawled-on-the-ice Lundqvist and over the goal line at 3:56, putting the Rangers in a 2-0 hole.
NONE
shots by period
Period WSH NYR
1st 8 8
2nd 8 10
3rd 14 7
OT 1 1
Total 31 26
Team Stats
Category WSH NYR
Power Plays 1/3 0/3
Hits 27 25
Faceoff Wins 31 28
Giveaways 5 14
Takeaways 7 10
Blocked Shots 18 12
Penalty Minutes 6 6
Three Stars of the Game
1st
Alex Ovechkin
L
G: 2 Shots: 5
A: 0 Hits: 3
PTS: 2 PIM: 0
+/-: 2 TOI: 21:32
Washington Capitals
2nd
Nicklas Backstrom
C
G: 1 Shots: 4
A: 0 Hits: 0
PTS: 1 PIM: 0
+/-: 2 TOI: 21:52
Washington Capitals
3rd
Ryan McDonagh
D
G: 0 Shots: 1
A: 2 Hits: 2
PTS: 2 PIM: 0
+/-: -1 TOI: 23:32
NEXT GAME: Monday 1/11 Boston Bruins at New York Rangers, 7:00 PM
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