Capitals fall to Rangers in overtime
The Washington Capitals dropped a game to a Metropolitan Division foe for the second night in a row.
This time it was the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night who downed the Washington Capitals 6-5 in overtime. It was all thanks to a five goal performance from Mika Zibanejad.
Carl Hagelin got the Capitals on the board first with his eighth goal of the season on a shot from the right face-off area at 7:05. Nick Jensen and Ilya Kovalchuk had the helpers.
Zibanejad evened things up at 9:01 in the first with a power play goal after Nic Dowd took his second penalty of the night. First it was for tripping, then holding. 1-1 was the score after 20 with shots on goal even at nine apiece.
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Zibanejad put the Rangers up 2-1 at 5:29 in the second period before Kovalchuk tied things up to score his 10th goal of the season and first as a member of the Caps. It came on a charging one-time blast from the right circle assisted by Lars Eller and Richard Panik.
Tony DeAngelo gave the Rangers the lead right back with a goal at 14:42 but the Caps answered 16 seconds later with Garnet Hathaway deflecting in a one-time snapshot from Michal Kempny. Panik was also credited with an assist.
3-3 was the score after two periods with the Caps outshooting the Rangers 17-12 in the second.
The Rangers took the lead 12 seconds in with Zibanejad completing the hat trick. The Caps tied things up at 4-on-4 with an Alex Ovechkin shot from the office. John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom had the helpers.
Zibanejad gave the Rangers the lead with 1:42 left but Ovechkin answered to force overtime with a goal with 42.9 seconds remaining for his 47th goal of the season. Ovechkin was there in front of the net to bang in a rebound. Kovalchuk and Carlson had the helpers.
5-5 was the score after 60 with the Rangers outshooting the Caps 16-8 in the third period. The Rangers had two shots while the Caps had none in overtime and it was the second shot from Zinbanejad 33 seconds in that sent the Garden fans home happy. It was his fifth goal of the game.
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The Caps are now tied with the Flyers with 87 points for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Their record drops to 40-20-7. They’ll look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. Puck drop for that game is at 1 p.m.