Having scuffled through the final four games of a five-game homestand, the Capitals needed a spark, something to elevate their collective game as they head into the final 20 games of the season with a sizable lead in both the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference standings.
On Wednesday night against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, they found that spark and used it to author yet another comeback victory, a 3-2 overtime triumph.
Tom Wilson netted the game-winner in the final minute of overtime, finishing a sublime play from Dylan Strome to get the puck to him. Wednesday’s win gives the Caps a modest two-game winning streak, with both victories achieved beyond the 60 minutes of regulation hockey.
Wilson sent Strome into New York ice on a 2-on-1 rush, then waited for the patient and precise return feed for a tap in at the right post at 4:07 of the extra session.
“I wanted to get the puck to Stromer,” recounts Wilson, “just because he’s still got such good poise and he’s such a great facilitator with the puck. And I knew that if it was open, he’d try and get it back [to me], so I just made sure that if he was going to pass it back, I would put it in. He made an amazing, amazing play, and left me with an open net.”
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin crept a goal closer to Wayne Gretzky’s all-time career goals mark of 894; he tied the game on a Washington power play in the third period, netting goal No. 885 of his career.
“We fought through a lot tonight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “There was a lot going on in that hockey game, start to finish. You could feel a little bit of tension in the air; the building plays into it. Two teams that have seen a lot of each other over the last — whatever it is – 14 months, some calls and stuff going on, the physicality part of it. There was a lot for us to fight through that. Guys are cut, bleeding everywhere, all over the bench, and we find a way to get that thing tied. And I thought we played really well in the third period.”
The Caps and Rangers tangled in the playoffs last spring, and Wednesday’s game was their seventh meeting in the last 11 months. Washington got on the board early in the first, but New York led for much of the back half of the contest.
After the Rangers were guilty of icing the puck a minute after opening puck drop, the Caps made them pay. Washington won a left dot draw in New York ice, and Wilson pulled the puck from a tangle of feet and sticks, nudging it to P-L Dubois in the slot. Dubois fired it home for a 1-0 Washington lead at 1:04 of the first.
Charlie Lindgren was strong in goal for the Caps, and he made a pair of saves in short succession to deny Vincent Trocheck and then Artemi Panarin just ahead of the midpoint of the opening period.
At the opposite end of the ice, Igor Shesterkin made a key save to deny Lars Eller’s backhand bid off the rush just after the midpoint of the first. And minutes later, the Rangers squared the score.
After Alexis Lafreniere gained the zone, Zac Jones fired a shot/pass from the right point and Panarin deftly deflected it past Lindgren from slot to make it a 1-1 contest at 13:37.
Washington’s penalty killing outfit started off what would be a stellar night for that unit with an effective kill of a double-minor for hi-sticking on Ethen Frank. The Caps limited the Rangers to one harmless shot on net during the life of that four-minute power play.
Early in the second, the Caps’ penchant for taking bench minors for too many men on the ice cropped up again. And once again, the penalty killers got the job done.
Minutes later, New York took its first lead of the night. K’Andre Miller made a strong keep at the left point after Sam Carrick’s errant shot rattled glass and nearly rolled out of the Caps’ zone. Miller reached out to keep it in, and he threw it back down low for Carrick, who was able to put a backhander beneath a sprawling Lindgren to make it a 2-1 tilt at 8:05.
Both sides got cantankerous in the back half of the middle frame. First, Carrick and the Caps’ Brandon Duhaime dropped the gloves and fought. A few minutes later, Washington’s Matt Roy was whistled for a roughing minor, and he and New York’s Juuso Parssinen then scrapped in front of Lindgren.
Washington snuffed out the resulting power play to keep the deficit at a single goal going into the third, with Lindgren again aiding his own cause with a save on Trocheck.
Midway through the third, Ovechkin rose to the occasion, pouncing on a loose puck and burying it before Shesterkin – who made a pair of nifty glove stops on Ovechkin later in the game – knew what was up. Ovechkin’s 41st career goal at Madison Square Garden squared the score at 2-2 at 10:28 of the third.
“I think they’re all special,” ways Caps defenseman John Carlson of Ovechkin’s nearly 900 career goals. “I think it’s great to see him still as excited as ever, still having as big of an impact as he has. It’s incredible how many goals he has this year. He’s been a huge part of our success.
“It’s obviously nice. You’re cheering for your friend, he seems to score every time on a big stage in a big moment, and he did that tonight, too.”
One of the key elements of the Caps’ late comeback was limiting the Rangers to just four shots on goal in the final 24 plus minutes of hockey that were played after the start of the third period.
Over nearly the final 19 minutes of play, the Rangers’ forward group wasn’t able to muster a single shot on net; Trocheck’s 47-footer at 5:22 of the third was the last shot on net from a New York forward.
“I thought for sure the third period was our best period,” says Lindgren. “We did a lot of the right things, and obviously the power play came up big. But we’ve been doing it all year long. With the game kind of hangs in the balance, we found a way to be on the right side of things and we did it again tonight.”
