For most of the last five weeks, the Caps have been engaged in low-scoring, tight-checking contests. But on Saturday afternoon against the New York Rangers at Capital One Arena, the Caps turned the clock back to their high-scoring ways of October and November, and they turned back the Rangers, 7-4.
Seven different Capitals scored and 13 of Washington’s 18 skaters collected a point, led by Dylan Strome’s three-point outing (one goal, two assists). Alex Ovechkin netted career goal No. 872 to draw within 23 of passing Wayne Gretzky, and The Great Eight also passed Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Raymond Bourque (1,579) for 12th place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list with the 1,580th point of his career.
With the game-winner on Saturday against the Rangers, Ovechkin (133) is now two game-winning goals shy of matching Jaromir Jagr’s all-time NHL mark (135) in that category.
Special teams were critical for the Caps; Washington scored a pair of power-play goals while snuffing out all four New York power plays on the afternoon. And although a Logan Thompson miscue while playing the puck led to New York scoring the first goal of the game, he was excellent thereafter, making a number of saves at key moments of the contest.
“It was a hockey game,” shrugs Strome. “I thought we did a good job of finding a way to keep the lead. It was kind of a crazy game, just with goals back and forth. The power play was great; our penalty kill was awesome.”
For the first time since a 6-5 win over the Devils in New Jersey on Nov. 30, the Caps managed a six-pack attack for the first time in 15 games. Seven of the Capitals’ first two dozen games this season ended with Washington lighting the lamp six or more times.
“Probably not the way that we drew it up, but tons of twists and turns in it,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Saturday’s game. “From a coaching standpoint, I feel like the second period was where we got to work, and we got down to business. The first period, we weren’t very good and I thought we were very fortunate to get out of that at 1-1. The power play scores a huge goal late, and LT with some very big saves.
“And our guys did a tremendous job of responding in the second period and finding a way to flip that game because it wasn’t looking good in that first period.”
Chris Kreider staked New York to a 1-0 lead with a gift of a goal seven minutes into the first. Thompson came out to play the puck on a dump in, but he inadvertently put the puck right on Kreider’s tape, and the veteran winger sent it right back into the vacant cage to give his club the lead.
Late in the first, the Caps pulled even when Strome struck on the man advantage, putting back the rebound of a Jakob Chychrun shot with 1:14 left in the opening period.
Early the second, the Caps took a lead they would not relinquish. Lars Eller tipped home a Martin Fehervary left point shot at 2:29 to put the Caps up 2-1.
Just after the midpoint of the middle period, Andrew Mangiapane finished a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play, pushing a one-timer past veteran Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick, who was unable to register career win No. 400 on Saturday. The Caps’ third straight goal gave them a 3-1 lead.
“It just came from a good forecheck,” recounts Mangiapane. “I felt like we were forechecking them well the whole night, just staying on top of them. I was able to get it back to our [defense] and it went low to [Nic Dowd]. And Dowder made a heck of a pass to me, and I just had to hit the net.”
About three minutes after the Mangiapane goal, the Rangers appeared to have pulled within a goal of Washington on a Will Cuylle tally. But Washington’s video coaching crew of Brett Leonhardt and Emily Engel-Natzke helped the Caps take that one off the board via a lengthy coach’s challenge review that ultimately showed New York’s Brett Berard was in the zone ahead of the play.
The Rangers made it a 3-2 game late in the second anyway, doing so when Sam Carrick converted an Ovechkin turnover with 3:34 left in the frame.
In addition to taking the Cuylle goal off the board, the Caps were diligent in their rapid responses to Rangers’ goals for the remainder of the afternoon, taking the wind out of the sails of their beleaguered divisional foe, which lost for the 16th time in 21 games today (5-16-0). Less than two minutes after Carrick cut the lead to one, Connor McMichael’s power-play goal restored Washington’s two-goal cushion ahead of intermission.
“Anytime you can contribute a big goal – especially at a big point in the game like that,” says McMichael. “I feel like when you’re not playing that many minutes, it’s always huge to chip in for the group and chip in where you can.”
The Capitals kept the Rangers at bay in two early third-period power plays, only to see the Rangers draw within a goal when Filip Chytil scored on a breakaway at 8:32, making it a 4-3 tilt.
Ovechkin intervened, scoring three seconds after an offensive zone draw – and television timeout – to lift the Caps back up by a pair.
Mika Zibanejad again drew the Rangers within a goal with 6:56 remaining, and again the Caps issued a quick response. Aliaksei Protas scored on the rebound of a P-L Dubois shot that rang iron, giving Washington a 6-4 advantage with exactly six minutes to play.
When Ovechkin teed up Tom Wilson for an empty-net tally to account for the 7-4 final, he also passed Bourque on the all-time scoring list.
In a game that was much more paint-by-number than Picasso on both sides, the Caps banked two more points by vanquishing a division rival. They also prevented the Rangers from putting together consecutive victories for the first time in a month and a half.
“Again, it’s frustrating,” laments Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. “The start was good. The times that we really needed to defend hard from the tops of the circles down to the crease, we’ve just got to be firmer with what we’re doing. The guys were pushing the whole time, but we couldn’t catch it. We couldn’t catch it today.”
