Caps, Kuemper Blank Rangers, 4-0

A game after Alex Ovechkin made history by passing Gordie Howe to move into second place on the NHL's all-time goals list, the Caps made some team history on Tuesday night in New York against the Rangers. Behind a 32-save shutout from Darcy Kuemper and a sturdy performance from Washington's penalty-killing outfit, the Capitals blanked the Rangers 4-0 to record their sixth straight road win. That ties the franchise mark for consecutive road triumphs, established in 1984 and matched only once since before tonight, in 2011.

The six-pack of road wins is a far cry from the Caps' early season road game, when they won only two of their first 10 (2-6-2) away from the friendly confines of Capital One Arena. Tuesday's win was also Washington's fifth in a row overall, and its 10th in the last 11 games. The Caps are 13-3-1 in their last 17 games.
"Regardless of playing at home or on the road, we're playing the game we want to play," says Kuemper. "That gives us a chance every night. The team game becomes even more important on the road. You're [not] getting the last change and you don't always get the match-ups, so it comes down to playing the right way, and that's why we've been able to turn it around."
Getting an early lead and building on it also helps, and the Caps have done that much more frequently in the second quarter of the season than they did in the first, regardless of venue. Washington also won the special teams battle, scoring once on the power play and tacking on a late shorthanded goal into an empty net.
"Let's face it, one team showed up ready to want to win a hockey game and the other team didn't," says Rangers coach Gerard Gallant.
"We just didn't play well," he adds. "We looked sloppy everywhere, even the power play. We're missing shots, missing the net a lot. We just had a bad game, and it was a full effort besides the goaltender. He was outstanding again, played a great game, and did a good job. But a lot of guys didn't show up to play hard tonight. And give credit to the other team over there; they played hard, they battled every shift and they played the game the right way for 60 minutes."
Ahead of the midpoint of the first period, the Caps drew a pair of penalty calls that resulted in a lengthy 5-on-3 power play, and Washington took advantage of that largesse to forge a 1-0 lead.
Dylan Strome drew a slashing call on Ryan Lindgren (Charlie's brother) and 16 seconds later Alex Ovechkin drew a holding penalty on Chris Kreider. Forty seconds into the 5-on-3, Marcus Johansson gave the Caps a 1-0 lead when he got a stick on the rebound of an Evgeny Kuznetsov shot and pushed it home at 8:44.
In the back half of the frame, the Caps went shorthanded for the first time. Kuemper made four of his 13 first-period stops during that penalty, and a couple more right after during a lengthy goalmouth scramble.
Washington killed off an early penalty in the second period, and Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin made a great stop on Anthony Mantha in a 1-on-1 situation a couple minutes later to keep the Blueshirts within one.
Just after the midpoint of the middle period, Kuemper made an excellent save on Julien Gauthier in a 1-on-1 situation. The Caps survived a brief video review to ensure that the puck did not cross the line; it did not.
New York began to generate a bit more time in Washington ice late in the second, but the Caps cured that problem by going 200 feet to double their lead. Conor Sheary carried into New York ice down the right side, working a little give-and-go with Strome. Sheary lost control of the return feed, resulting in an easy save for Shesterkin, but the New York netminder kicked it into the slot where the late-arriving Erik Gustafsson buried the rebound for a 2-0 Washington lead at 17:01.
"I was just trying to follow up," says Gustafsson of his fifth goal in as many games. "One of their guys got hurt or something like that, and it was like a 4-on-2. I was just trying to follow up and the puck came on my tape, and I just tried to shoot it. It was a big goal at that time, so it was nice."
Gallant issued an unsuccessful challenge on the Gustafsson goal, alleging that Sheary had interfered with Shesterkin. The failed challenge resulted in a Washington power play, and Shesterkin had to make probably his best save of the game to deny Johansson a second power play strike, making a dazzling glove save.
In the final minute of the middle frame, the Rangers turned it over in neutral ice and Mantha put it on the stick of Lars Eller as he entered New York territory. Eller skirted one defender then used another - Rangers captain Jacob Trouba - as a screen to fire a shot past Shesterkin from between the circles for a 3-0 Washington lead with 36.3 seconds left in the period.
"We were playing on our toes," says Eller. "Trying to take time and space away from them and be hard on the forecheck. We've been doing a good job in the last month here of getting all five guys involved in the attack, like Gus scores again, follows up and scores a goal almost from the crease. Sometimes it's the forwards coming back and breaking up an odd-man rush, so we're getting contributions for four or five guys every time we're on the ice right now."
The two late goals in the second gave the Caps some crucial breathing room in the third. Washington went shorthanded three times in the final frame, once early and twice late. On the second of those kills, Sheary blocked an Artemi Panarin shot and then pumped the puck down ice and into the vacated New York cage for his second shorthanded goal of the season with 3:02 remaining, accounting for the 4-0 final.
The Caps had to kill off one more late penalty in order for Kuemper to secure his third shutout of the season and the second of his career against the Rangers, and his best stop of the night came just ahead of those two late New York power plays, a right skate stop on Jimmy Vesey from point blank range.
Tuesday's win enables the Caps to leapfrog the Rangers and slide into fourth place in the Metro Division standings.
"I thought it was good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "A lot of things were good. Certainly Darcy was really good, and I thought the penalty kill was really good. I thought we came out good too. I think that was important coming off the break, just having a good start, a good first period. So there are some positives tonight for sure."