Cuylle gets 1st NHL hat trick, Rangers ease past Capitals

NEW YORK -- The Washington Capitals couldn’t keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race, losing 8-1 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

“It was embarrassing,” Capitals forward Aliaksei Protas said. “It can’t be like that at this time of the year.”

Will Cuylle had his first NHL hat trick, Adam Fox had a goal and two assists, Mika Zibanejad had three assists, and Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves for the Rangers (33-36-9), who have won five of six games despite being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

It’s the second straight game the Rangers have had a player get his first NHL hat trick. Gabe Perreault did it in a 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

“That’s a big deal,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s hard to score in this league. You get an opportunity to get a hat trick, it’s a big deal for a player and it means a lot. I think it means a lot to our whole team when a player is able to accomplish it. So, to do it back-to-back for our group has been great.”

The Capitals (39-30-9) dropped to three points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the East and three behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division with four games remaining.

They play three of the four on the road, where they’re 15-19-4.

“We just need four wins in the next four games,” defenseman Matt Roy said.

Washington entered Sunday one point out of a wild-card spot and two out of third in the division, getting that close by going 8-3-2 since March 7. 

But the Senators and Flyers both won while the Capitals lost for the second time in three games, allowing four or more goals for the fifth time in six games.

Philadelphia and Ottawa each have a game in hand on Washington. The New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets are all ahead of the Capitals too.

“It's just frustrating,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “It's frustrating because we fought as hard as we have to get back into this spot where we're within striking distance. Does it take a lot of you? No doubt. But these are big games, and unfortunately, we just didn't have any gas tonight.”

Connor McMichael scored and Charlie Lindgren gave up eight goals on 32 shots in his first start since March 12. 

Logan Thompson started the previous 10 consecutive games.

“We can’t just throw ‘Chucky’ (Lindgren) under the bus like this, especially at this time of the year when we need points, we need to win,” Protas said. “We always have been talking about how it doesn’t matter how it looks, but it can’t look like this.”

Conor Sheary gave New York a 1-0 lead 23 seconds into the first period, scoring from the slot after Tye Kartye kicked the puck to him.

“It doesn't decide the game, but you could see we get behind the 8-ball,” Carbery said. 

McMichael made it 1-1 with a breakaway goal at 13:45.

But Dylan Strome took a delay of game penalty at 19:02 of the first period and Anthony Beauvillier did the same thing at 1:09 of the second. 

The Rangers didn’t score on the first one. They capitalized on the second when J.T. Miller scored the first of New York’s five goals in the second period, making it 2-1 at 3:07, the puck going in off him at the far post. 

“I mean, those are huge moments in the game, no doubt, but even without that -- look, I'm not going to put it on one power play, we lost the game 8-1,” Carbery said. “The first period we did have some sequences, but you could tell it was just a touch off. We had some possession and couldn't get out of it, or we couldn't get a puck to the net or it would get blocked or we would fumble it. But we were still in that game after the first period. It's 1-1, right, and the second period wheels come off."

Cuylle scored a far-post goal off a pass from Braden Schneider from the right circle to make it 3-1 at 5:53. He scored again at 8:33, making it 4-1 with a shot from the right circle five seconds after coming out of the penalty box.

Adam Sykora extended the lead to 5-1 at 13:22. Fox’s power-play goal from the point gave New York a 6-1 lead at 18:27. It was his 50th point in 51 games this season.

Vincent Trocheck scored from the left circle at 2:27 of the third to extend the lead to 7-1.

Cuylle completed the hat trick and made it 8-1 at 19:28 of the third period, scoring his 20th goal of the season and getting his 100th NHL point in the process.

“I’m happy for him because I know how hard he’s working,” Sullivan said. “To get rewarded with a hat trick tonight, it’s great. It’ll be a big boost of confidence for him and hopefully he can build on it moving forward.”

NOTES: The Rangers have had players record hat tricks on consecutive days three times in franchise history. The first was Feb. 3-4, 1973. It also happened Nov. 20-21, 1982, and this weekend. … The five goals in the second period matched the Rangers season high for goals in a period, also five in the third period of a 7-3 against the Capitals in Washington on Dec. 23.