Capitals vs. Rangers Recap: Washington’s Seven Goals Worth Two Points

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The Capitals were able to put together more offense than the Rangers in Manhatten tonight to beat their hosts 7 to 3. The game winning goal came in the second period from Alex Ovechkin and Braden Holtby did the rest, stopping 32 of the 35 shots he faced.

First up, here’s Sunday night’s Plus/Minus:

• Plus: The Capitals’ second period was their best. They put four goals past Henrik Lundqvist on 17 shots and changed the momentum of the game in less than twenty minutes. Their third period play was impressive as well.
• Minus: Washington’s start was less than stellar despite jumping out to an early lead. Three New York goals in less than five minutes had the Capitals on their heels and the Rangers feeling confident. Washington did not have a pregame skate this morning due to an afternoon basketball game.

Eleven more notes on the game.

• New York went without right-handed defensemen Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein for the fourth consecutive game. In their place were Dylan McIlrath and Chris Summers, the latter skating in his second game of the season. The Rangers went 3-5-2 in the ten games leading up to tonight’s tilt, which is their third straight loss.
• Justin Williams tipped home a sweet set of passes from Taylor Chorney and John Carlson to put Washington ahead by one early. Excellent puck movement from those two and Evgeny Kuznetsov had the Rangers turned around in their own zone and Williams capitalized. He wasn’t finished though.
• J.T. Miller wasn’t having any of it though, as he scored his seventh goal of the year 99 seconds later after beating Matt Niskanen in the slot and firing a low wrist shot in the far corner. Miller protected the puck in between the dots and fended off a Niskanen stick check to get a shot away that slipped past Holtby’s left skate.
• Barely two minutes later Chris Kreider walked around Holtby in the slot and tucked home his sixth of the year with a soft forehand. All of a sudden MSG was rocking and all the Capitals were on their heels on enemy ice.
• And New York took full advantage of that on their next power play. With under two minutes left in the first Dan Boyle fired home a Ryan McDonagh pass from the right circle. In exactly six minutes Washington went from ahead by one to down by two.
• Washington started the second period with a solid penalty kill and bounced back from that with their second goal of the game thanks to a sweet Kuznetsov backhand over Lundqvist’s shoulder. The goal ended a three game pointless streak.
• And less than two minutes later (sensing a theme?) T.J. Oshie took a creative Nicklas Backstrom cross ice dump in and drove hard to the crease on his backhand where he stashed home his 13th of the season.
• Ovechkin would put Washington ahead once again a little more than halfway through the game courtesy of Swede passes from Marcus Johansson and Backstrom. Ovechkin leaned into a wrist shot that worked its way through Lundqvist’s left shoulder and into the net.
• With less than a minute to play in the middle frame Williams slammed home a power play goal past Lundqvist’s blocker to put the Capitals up by two for the first time in the game. The goal was Williams’ tenth of the year and was Backstrom’s third assist of the evening.
• The Rangers elected to start Magnus Hellberg to begin the third period but he gave up a goal on his first shot against. With New York pressing on the power play Jason Chimera was able to get behind everyone with the puck and hold on for long enough to beat Hellberg on his blocker side.
• The game’s scoring was completed by Marcus Johansson with a one touched shot from the slot. A pair of Russian assists, Dmitry Orlov and Kuznetsov, delivered the puck to Johansson and he made no mistake beating Hellberg.

Game highlights: