Playing without captain Alex Ovechkin for the first time this season, trailing after 40 minutes of play, and in desperate need of a win to steer out of a 2-5-2 tailspin, the Caps pulled it off on Saturday at Capital One Arena against the New York Rangers. Nic Dowd tied the game for Washington early in the third period, bringing the crowd alive and into the game. Less than two minutes later, T.J. Oshie gave the Caps their first lead of the game, a 3-2 advantage that Charlie Lindgren and 18 red-sweatered skaters safely ushered to the final buzzer.
“I liked a lot of the things we did; I liked our game overall,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “There was a second-period stretch that got away from us a little bit, but the start was great, the third period was obviously great.
“We did a lot of things from controlling play a lot cleaner with some of our [offensive] zone sequences. We were able to get into a rhythm where it wasn’t just one and done; it felt like it was more sustained. There was more applied pressure from us, controlling play for long stretches of that game.”
Making his first start since Dec. 29 and playing a full 60 minutes for the first time since Dec. 23, Lindgren was sharp, making 25 stops to earn his eighth victory of the season.
“It did feel like [it had been] quite a while,” says Lindgren. “Especially early in that game, just trying to get my feet under me. It had been since really before Christmas; I got hurt five minutes into that [Dec. 29] game, so I don’t know if that really counts.
“But I felt like I really started to settle in towards the end of the first period. Second period, third period, I felt good the rest of the game. It felt good getting back out there with the boys.”
Lindgren made an excellent lateral stop late in the first New York power play of the game, sliding to his right to deny Mika Zibanejad’s one-timer from the left dot. But the Rangers grabbed a 1-0 lead shortly after the midpoint of the first period, benefiting from a favorable bounce. From the left circle, Blueshirts’ blueliner Adam Fox tried to make a centering feed, only to have the puck bound right back to him, off the skate of a Washington defenseman Nick Jensen. The bounce opened up some net for Fox, and he scored at 13:23.
The Caps started well in the first, but they got sidetracked by a couple of penalty killing missions in the first. Soon after they killed off the second of those Rangers man advantages, the Caps pulled even on a nifty breakaway goal, a goal that came from some good defense.
Anthony Mantha blocked a k’Andre Miller shot at the Washington line, and Connor McMichael scooped it up and sauced an excellent lead feed for Mantha, sending the big winger in all alone on New York netminder Jonathan Quick. Mantha made a move and put a backhander under the bar and behind Quick to square the score at 17:50 of the first frame.
Lindgren made a pair of early denials on Vincent Trocheck bid on a back door timing play and Artemi Panarin’s shot from the left circle on the same sequence. But New York regained the lead a couple of minutes later when Fox collected an errant exit try at the right point and sifted it through traffic and into the Washington net for his second of the game at 5:15.
Lindgren made two key stops on Trocheck in the back half of the second, thwarting him first on a backhand try on a power move out of the corner, and later denying the New York pivot on a wraparound endeavor. New York was especially assertive in the final minutes of the second, seeking an insurance marker.
Early in the third, the Caps had to kill off a on offensive-zone cross-checking call on Max Pacioretty, and they did so, with an assist to New York winger Chris Kreider, who was boxed for slashing John Carlson in the offensive zone halfway through the Pacioretty penalty.
Seconds after Washington’s abbreviated power play ended, Evgeny Kuznetsov gained New York ice, curled around the back of the cage and issued a backhander with some air beneath it, from just above the goal line, aside the left post. Driving to the net between two New York defenders, Dowd adroitly kept his stick under the crossbar while redirecting the puck to the back of the net at 6:36.
The building came alive instantly, and it was still buzzing less than two minutes later when Dylan Strome patiently held and surveyed from the left side of the New York zone, before spotting Oshie and hitting him for a back door tap in and a 3-2 Washington lead at 8:29.
“I just went to the back door and sat there,” says Oshie. “The whole play was developed from our end, and then up the ice. Stromer made everything happen; I was just sitting there.”
Lindgren made one last strong stop on Alexis Lafreniere from the slot in the waning seconds, with Quick on the bench in favor of an extra attacker.
“In the third period, you see the group dig in,” says Carbery. “I think that’s where the word ‘character’ [comes in] – and where our guys really thrive – in those moments of hanging on and supporting one another, and communicating on the bench, and blocking huge shots.
“[Jensen] makes an unbelievable play when they make that slot line pass to the back door; he dives and breaks up the pass. Chuckie comes up with a bunch of big saves. Those are moments where I feel like our guys thrive in those situations.”
For the Rangers, Saturday’s loss was their fourth in succession (0-3-1), their longest slide of the season to date.
“They had two chances in the third period,” says Rangers’ coach Peter Laviolette. “They scored on them both. Defensively, I thought we played a pretty good game.
“Their first goal came off us trying to create offense; we shoot a puck and they sprung someone for a breakaway. Two chances that we did give up in the third period, they threw a puck sideways at the net, it hit something and went in, and they scored two goals.
“We’ve got to go home, regroup, and get ready for [Sunday].”
The Caps and Rangers split a pair of games in the last several weeks, and they’ll finish their season’s series on Sunday afternoon in Manhattan.
