The Washington Capitals opened their last visit to Madison Square Garden on Monday night with a depleted lineup. Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson returned to the lineup, but T.J. Oshie was out for personal reasons, Justin Schultz was out (presumably with an injury), and Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ulya Samsonov were held out for disciplinary reasons. The absences forced the Caps to go with 17 skaters, not the usual 18, against a New York Rangers team hanging by a hair in the playoff race. Despite being shorthanded, the Caps came from behind and won going away, 6-3.
First Period
The Caps went a man short when Lars Eller went off for tripping at the 1:04 mark. The Caps killed the penalty without allowing a shot on goal. The Rangers would be tagged with a penalty in the tenth minutes, Brendan Smith going off for holding the stick at 9:49. Alex Ovechkin was not on the ice for the ensuing power play, he having gone to the locker room at the break in play, reducing the forward complement to ten forwards.
Nic Dowd opened the evening’s scoring on a play started with a faceoff win in the defensive end by Dowd. Garnet Hathaway collected the loose puck and fed Carl Hagelin exiting the zone. Hagelin poked the puck ahead to Nic Dowd to create a 2-on-1. With Hagelin on his left, Dowd called his own number from the right wing circle and beat goalie Igor Sheasterkin over his left pad at the 14:12 mark.
Conor Sheary made it 2-0 barely 90 seconds later. Sheary gained the offensive zone along the left wing wall and wrapped the puck around the end boards to Tom Wilson along the right wing wall. Wilson tried to feed Michael Raffl, but the puck was redirected by Raffl off his skate to Sheary heading to the net frm Shesterkin’s right. Sheary collected the puck, spun and beat Shesterkin off his right pad at the 14:44 mark of the period.
Mika Zibanejad halved the lead when he took a feed by Artemi Panarin from the offensive blue line, circled through the left wing faceoff circle, and snapped a shot over the left shoulder of goalie Vitek Vanecek on the far side at 18:00 of the period.
-- The Caps outshot the Rangers, 15-10, in the period and out-attempted them, 20-14. Daniel Sprong let the team with four shots on goal and five attempts. Anthony Mantha and Conor Sheary had three shots on goal apiece.
-- The Caps blocked no Ranger shot attempts in the period.
-- Washington won 12 of 18 faceoffs; Nic Dowd winning all seven of his draws.
-- John Carlson skated 9:18 to lead the team. Mantha led forwards with 8:16 in ice time. Alex Ovechkin skated on 39 second shift before going off for the remainder of the evening with a lower body injury.
Second Period
New York went a man to the good early in the period when Tom Wilson was sent to the penalty box for roughing at 1:12. Zibanejad converted the man advantage when he finished a three-man passing play with Panarin and Ryan Strome, beating Vanecek from the slot at 2:30 to make it a 2-2 game.
The Rangers took the lead when the kids combined on a goal, Alexis Lafreniere assisting on a Kaapo Kakko goal to finish a 2-on-1 rush at 4:35.
New York got their third power play of the game when the Caps were whistled for too many men on the ice at the 6:07 mark. The Rangers went to a 5-on-3 power play when the teams got into a dust-up at the Caps’ crease. Tom Wilson was hit with a double-minor for roughing and a ten-minute misconduct, and Brenden Dillon went to the box for roughing, while Pavel Buchnevich went off for the Rangers for roughing along with Panarin. The Caps killed the 5-on-3 portion of the power play, and then they skated off the rest of the 5-on-4 Ranger advantage.
Washington had a chance to tie the game when the Rangers were called for too many men on the ice at 12:26, putting the Caps on a power play. The Caps could not convert, though, and the Rangers held on to their one-goal lead.
Garnet Hathaway did get the game-tying goal when he cut to the middle and intercepted a weak clearing attempt from the top of the Rangers’ crease and backhanded the loose puck through Shesterkin at the 18:30 mark. That would be the end of the scoring in the second period, the teams tied at 3-3.
-- The Caps and Rangers split 22 shot on goal down the middle with 11 apiece, the Rangers holding an 18-16 edge in shot attempts.
-- Only three Caps did not record a shot on goal in the first 40 minutes – Nicklas Backstrom, Trevor van Riemsdyk, and Alex Ovechkin (who skated only one shift in this game).
-- Nic Dowd won five of eight draws in the period and was 12-for 15 over two periods.
Third Period
The Caps got an early opportunity in the first minute of the period when Zac Jones was given two minutes for tripping 33 seconds into the period. The teams had dueling breakaways during and just after the unsuccessful power play, Kevin Rooney for the Rangers and Michael Raffl for the Caps, both unsuccessful.
Daniel Sprong put the Caps ahead when he intercepted a weak attempt at a cross-ice pass from Brendan Smith, deked Shesterkin to the ice and wrapped the puck around the goalie’s left pad at 4:37.
Nicklas Backstrom gave the Caps a two-goal cushion when he took a pass from Michael Raffl just inside the Rangers’ blue line, cut between two defenders, and chipped a sand wedge over the left shoulder of Shesterkin on the far side at 11:41 of the period.
Tom Wilson scored an empty net goal with 1:26 left to provide the final 6-3 margin for the Caps.
Other stuff…
-- Tom Wilson had 16 penalty minutes, his highest total of the season (he had 12 in a 5-2 loss to the Rangers in New York on March 30th).
-- The five goals allowed by Shesterkin are the most he allowed any opponent on home ice this season.
-- The Caps outshot the Rangers, 40-26, and out-attempted them, 60-48. Daniel Sprong led the team with seven shots on goal and eight attempts.
-- Alex Ovechkin was the only Capital without a shot attempt. OK, he had one shift.
-- John Carlson led the team with 25:00 in ice time. But for Ovechkin and his one shift, Tom Wilson played just 11:34.
-- Nic Dowd skated 21:25 for the game, the most ice time he has had this season.
-- Garnet Hathaway (1-1-2), Nic Dowd (1-1-2), Conor Sheary (1-0-1), Michael Raffl (0-2-2), Nick Jensen (0-1-1), Carl Hagelin (0-1-1). The lunch pail guys made a lot of noise.
-- Nicklas Backstrom and Dowd led the team in credited hits (three apiece).
-- John Carlson had three of the eight blocked shots for the Caps.
-- Ten different players had points. Not bad for having essentially 16 skaters for the entire game.
In the end…
It is already cliché, but this is the most inspirational game the Caps played this season. Consider that Ovechkin, Oshie, Kuznetsov, and Schultz -- all missing for this game save Ovechkin's lone shift -- accounted for 54 of the Caps’ 172 goals scored this season coming into this game, and yet they put up six on the Rangers, a team that has had their way with the Caps for the most part this season. Playing with 16 skaters added pressure on the Caps, especially on the road, where the Rangers could exploit matchups with the last change. And to top it off, the win returned the Caps to first place in the East Division over the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were hammered by the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-2. All in all, you could find things to complain about (Tom Wilson and your 16 penalty minutes…we’re looking at you). But the win’s the thing.
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