Zibanejad, Rangers end Capitals winning streak at seven

WASHINGTON -- Mika Zibanejad broke a tie with 2:32 remaining in the third period, and the New York Rangers ended the Washington Capitals' seven-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory at Capital One Arena on Saturday.

Zibanejad stole the puck from Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon between the hash marks and scored over Ilya Samsonov from a sharp angle to make it 2-1.
"I was basically just chasing [Dillon] and tried to stay on him," said Zibanejad, who also had an assist. "Got a push. I don't know if he caught a rut or something. He fell, and I was able to get the puck. Tried to get it on net and it went in, so it was nice."
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, and Keith Kinkaid made 28 saves for the Rangers (13-13-4), who lost the opener of the back-to-back set 2-1 here Friday. They led that game 1-0 in the third period before Alex Ovechkin scored twice.
"I guess you'd say we flipped the script," Kinkaid said. "Mika gets hit late in the game (by Garnet Hathaway with 8:19 remaining) like that and comes back and scores the game-winner. I think our attention to detail was huge. I don't know how many blocked shots we had (23), but guys were sacrificing their bodies. Anything it took."

John Carlson scored, and Samsonov made 22 saves for the Capitals (20-7-4). Ovechkin's five-game goal streak ended.
"I thought as the game wore on, we started to generate more chances and more looks, we had lots of attempts," Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. "They did a good job of blocking shots, but we had zone time. We were doing a lot of things we wanted, just unable to get it done."
New York took a 1-0 lead at 17:49 of the first period off a face-off when Buchnevich went to the front of the net and redirected a centering pass from Adam Fox.
The Capitals tied it 1-1 when Carlson backhanded a loose puck past Kinkaid at 5:55 of the third period.
Brett Howden scored into an empty net with 28 seconds left for the 3-1 final.
The Rangers played their third game without coach David Quinn and assistants Jacques Martin, David Oliver and Greg Brown, who remain unavailable due to NHL COVID-19 protocol guidelines. Kris Knoblauch, coach of Hartford of the American Hockey League, filled in for Quinn.
"I was really worried about the confidence [after the Capitals tied it]," Knoblauch said. "It could have easily been, 'Oh, here we go again.' But the guys were positive, especially the leaders were talking and just wanted to make sure we finished this one out. I don't think there was panic at all."

New York was 0-for-3 on the power play, and Washington was 0-for-4.
"It felt like we had a lot of great chances and we've got to find a way to bear down," Carlson said. "Especially these low-scoring games, I think we've been great 5-on-5 as a team, but your special teams really need to step up, and even with the chances we did get, I had probably two or three really good looks that I missed."
Capitals forward Tom Wilson had an assist in his return from a seven-game suspension for boarding Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo on March 5.
"I thought it was pretty good game," Wilson said. "There wasn't a ton either way, but that being said, we get into the third and they made the most of it late there in the game."
NOTES: Nicklas Backstrom got an assist for 961st NHL point, passing Henrik Zetterberg for the sixth-most in NHL history by a Sweden-born player. Backstrom has 255 goals and 706 assists in 987 games. … Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov played his 500th NHL game. His six-game point streak (one goal, six assists) ended. … Washington is 0-for-13 on the power play against New York in four games this season. The Rangers have killed off 70 of their opponents' 77 power plays in the past 24 games (90.9 percent). … New York defenseman Jacob Trouba played his 500th NHL game.