Capitals Defeat Rangers in Shootout

The Washington Capitals defeated the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden 3-2 in a shootout that had a bizarre ending. In the fourth round of the shootout, Alex Ovechkin came gliding down with the game on his stick. With a loud volume of boos from the New York crowd, Ovechkin went to his right but as he was set to take a shot, his stick got caught up with the stick of Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev. 

Georgiev tossed his stick towards Ovechkin’s, looking like he was intentionally trying to interfere with Ovechkin’s shootout attempt. The refs initially called it a save but reviewed the call only to overturn it to award Ovechkin the goal and give the Capitals the shootout win. The Capitals team embraced their captain, who couldn’t stop grinning. Meanwhile on the other end, Georgiev seemed like he was shocked.

The Rangers took a 1-0 lead 45 seconds into the game with a goal from Ryan Strome, his 11th of the year. That early lead by the Blueshirts was short lived however.

Carl Hagelin‘s presence was all over the ice in the very building where he spent his first four NHL seasons. At 2:03, he scored on a sharp-angle shot for his first goal as a member of the Capitals and his third this season.

The Capitals took the lead at 10:02 with Andre Burakovsky‘s ninth goal of the season. Subjected to rumors throughout the season about a potential trade, the deadline is over and Burakovsky remains in Washington. In interviews he’s said he didn’t want to get traded and not getting moved will certainly give the young 24-year old left winger confidence in the Capitals road to a second Stanley Cup.

Burakovsky had a great snipe but another thing worth taking notice in this sequence is screen created in front of the net by Nick Jensen. A week ago, Jensen and Hagelin were each on the ice for the first time as teammates against these same Rangers. One week later, their immediate impact on the Capitals has taken notice.

The Rangers tied it at 14:20 in the second period with Pavel Buchnevich‘s 13th goal of the season. The game would be tied at two at the end of two periods. The Capitals outshot the Rangers 20-7 in the second period after being outshot 11-9 in the first.

Things were slow in the third period with just 12 total shots combined, the Capitals once again leading in shots 8-4. The game would require overtime so both teams at least came away with a point.

In overtime, Braden Holtby made a huge save leading to an Ovechkin breakaway. With the game on his stick, Ovechkin went for the win but came up short. Both teams only registered two shots in the overtime and the game would need a shootout.

The Rangers got off to a great start in the skills challenge with a goal by former Capital Kevin Shattenkirk. The Capitals answered with a goal by T.J. Oshie. Mika Zibanejad and Evgeny Kuznetsov were each stopped before Tony DeAngelo and Nicklas Backstrom each scored to keep it even going to the fourth round.

Then Ovechkin’s heroics happened. It gave the Capitals their fourth win in a row and sweep their weekend New York trip. Washington now sits in first place in the Metropolitan Division as of this writing with 83 points (38-21-7), two ahead of the Islanders who are currently playing the Flyers. Now the Capitals look to finish the three-game road trip a perfect 3-0 with a Wednesday night contest in Philadelphia against the Flyers.