Starting and finishing both ends of a set of back-to-backs for the first time in his NHL career and for the first time in over five years, Caps’ goalie Charlie Lindgren turned in another terrific performance on Sunday in New York against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
But New York was able to score in the first and last minutes of the first period, and that proved to be enough. The Rangers’ 2-1 victory on Sunday leaves the two Metro Division rivals with a split of the weekend home-and-home set of back-to-backs, and a split of the four-game season’s series as well.
Lindgren stopped 25 shots in a 3-2 victory over the Rangers on Saturday in Washington, his first start since a short stint on injured reserve after suffering an upper body injury in a Dec. 29 start against the Islanders in New York. He stopped 29 shots in a losing effort on Sunday.
“It’s tough, because honestly I thought we played well enough,” says Lindgren. “Maybe we didn’t like our first [period] so much, but I thought in the second period we played some really good hockey.
“It felt like we were killing a lot of that third [period], which was unfortunate because we were pushing, we were feeling good about our game, and when you’re killing, you’re obviously spending a lot of time in your zone.”
As Lindgren indicated, the first period didn’t go according to plan. The Caps weren’t able to muster much in the way of offense at all; they managed four first-period shots on net and their best scoring opportunity came when Dylan Strome rang the right post off the rush late in the frame.
Artemi Panarin staked the Rangers to a 1-0 lead just 50 seconds into the first, scoring from the top of the left circle off the rush on a feed from Vincent Trocheck.
In the final minute of the first, the Rangers doubled their lead when New York winger Alexis Lafreniere got lost behind the defense in Washington ice. When teammates were able to get the puck to him – high to low – he was in a one-on-one situation with Lindgren. The Caps’ netminder thwarted Lafreniere’s first try with his glove, but he was unable to secure it. Lafreniere collected the loose puck and put it over a prone Lindgren to make it a 2-0 game with 49.9 seconds left in the period.
As the second period wore on, Washington tweaked some of its lines and pairings, and it was able to move the puck north and spend some time in the offensive zone, unlike the first frame. Just after the midpoint of the middle period, the Caps broke through and halved the New York lead.
Washington gained the zone and it blunted a New York clearing try, and then a T.J. Oshie shot from the slot went over the net. Max Pacioretty’s follow up went wide, but Strome retrieved and threw it back to the front, where Oshie was able to slip it just inside the right post, making it a 2-1 game at 11:03.
Minutes later, the same line nearly tied the game. Pacioretty found Oshie with some time and space just above the paint, but Igor Shesterkin made a stellar save on Oshie’s point blank chance.
“We were around it,” says Pacioretty. “The chances were there; we can try and build some chemistry if we stick together. I think we can help the team by producing. We got one, but we definitely could have had more.”
Mere seconds after Oshie was denied, the penalty soup started heating up. Martin Fehervary was boxed for interference, but the situation became critical when Nic Dowd was taken off for slashing, giving the Rangers a 5-on-3 power play for 37 seconds, and an opportunity to regain their two-goal cushion.
Lindgren stepped up with consecutive denials of Chris Kreider from the top of the paint, first with his right pad, and then with his glove on the rapid-fire follow-up try.
Those saves – and those two critical kills – gave the Caps some late momentum late in the second, but for the second time in as many afternoons, Washington went into the third period looking up at a one-goal deficit. They were able to overcome it on Saturday with a pair of goals in the third, but the Caps ended up having to kill two more penalties in the third period of Sunday’s game, taking some of the starch out of their comeback effort.
“We’re battling as hard as we can; I thought we had really good fight from everyone tonight,” says Strome. “Guys were battling, obviously the pucks aren’t going in, so we’re working hard to try to get those chances. And then the calls against us were just tough. Just some tough calls to see in the third period, and what was it, four in a row?”
It was indeed; New York had each of the game’s last four power plays, all of them after the Oshie goal. And there were coincidental minors late in the third that led to a two-minute stretch of 4-on-4 hockey as well.
“I liked our game tonight,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought we carried most of the play, from the second half or two-thirds of that game.
“I loved our second period, loved our third period. We had to kill a ton; the penalty kill was great tonight. We just would have liked to have found a way to get that second one, and potentially get on the power play a couple more times.”=
Lindgren’s play over the first half of the season – when healthy – has enabled Washington to have enough confidence in him to play him in consecutive games against the top team in the Metro Division. Among all goalies with 15 or more appearances this season, Lindgren’s .929 ranks second in the League, and his 2.24 GAA ranks third.
Alas, Lindgren ranks 48th among the 52 goaltenders with just 2.32 goals per game in offensive support since the beginning of November. Teammate Darcy Kuemper ranks 51st at 2.01.
“I obviously played a lot of back-to-backs in college, and I played a lot of back-to-backs in the American League,” says Lindgren. “So for me, it’s nothing really new. I found out shortly after the game [Saturday], so I was able to wrap my head around it and recover that night, and get ready for what was a big test today.
“I give a lot of credit to our guys. I thought everyone played a really hard-fought game. We knew [the Rangers] were going to come out and push really hard, and I thought they played well. But to come up short was unfortunate.”
