The New York Rangers know what it's like to win Game 1 of a playoff series on home ice only to hand the momentum back to the opposition with a loss in Game 2. It's the exact blueprint of their quarterfinal series with the Ottawa Senators, so the goal heading into tonight was to avoid letting that happen again for a second straight time. The Caps had other plans, though, took advantage of the chances they were given and came out of Madison Square Garden with a 3-2 win and tied in the series, 1-1. And here we go again.
Another fast start to the game for the Rangers didn't get them very far, as the flurry of shots sent at Braden Holtby in goal were all met with a response before they could reach the back of the net. The Capitals then started to feed off of the great play of their goaltender and grabbed some of the momentum in the game to apply some pressure on the Blueshirts. That pressure, at 12:20 of the first, forced Stu Bickel into turning the puck over in a horrid spot, which Keith Aucoin carried up ice to connect with Joel Ward and then Mike Knuble for the night's first goal. Not only was Bickel's turnover atrocious, but also his follow-up sliding attempt to block the pass was even worse, and equally so was Del Zotto standing mid-slot watching the play commence.
That wouldn't be the worst Ranger error of the period, though. With less than three minutes left on the clock, Henrik Lundqvist turned the puck over behind the net while trying to wrap it around the boards (how many times have we seen that?), and it ended up in the back of his net during a mad scramble in the crease. Actually, Lundqvist got a stick on Matt Hendricks' original attempt, but it was Jason Chimera at the side of the goal who banked a shot in off the skate of Ryan McDonagh to give Washington a 2-0 lead.
So two mental mistakes put the Rangers in a quick 2-0 hole, but the Caps would return the favor before the period concluded. As we saw on Chris Kreider's game-winner on Saturday, a bad change by the Capitals left them with an uneven amount of players on the ice to defend, and Marian Gaborik took advantage by pulling up on the rush and feeding Brad Richards for an extremely important tap-in to cut the Washington lead in half. Gaborik was undoubtedly one of the better Rangers on the ice in that period, and setting up that goal was just the icing on the cake. Clearly he was a man on a mission.
New York was presented with an opportunity to tie the game early in the second as a Mike Green tripping penalty carried over from the final seconds of the prior stanza. As per usual, the powerplayunit did not come up big in a crucial moment, killing any momentum the Rangers may have had after scoring a huge goal late in the first. Both teams would have chances after that point, but the story of the second period was the play of Lundqvist and Holtby on either end. The goaltenders were the difference in the middle frame, keeping the game at 2-1 going into the third.
Just seven minutes into the third period, the Rangers finally did find the tying goal, surprisingly coming on the powerplay. After about three or four attempts to do so, defenseman Michael Del Zottofinally hit the net with a shot from the point, which was deflected in front past Holtby. The goal was officially credited to Ryan Callahan, who was doing an excellent job of screening Holtby, but the puck actually went off Caps defenseman John Carlson and into the cage.
The teams would remain tied for a while after that, but the Rangers then found themselves getting into some penalty trouble, and a lazy holding offence by Brad Richards did them in. Regardless of whether Carlson aided the call or not, you cannot place a free hand on the shoulder of someone in order to slow them down - that's just pure laziness and an automatic minor. Plus, the officiating was laughable all night, but for the most part favored the Rangers. You cannot complain about that call.
Anyway, Alex Ovechkin immediately scored right off the faceoff with a bullet though a screen to give Washington their third goal on the night and what would turn out to be the game-winner. Not only was the shot beautiful, but so was his 'I can't here you' goal celebration directed at MSG after he scored.
With Lundqvist pulled for the extra attacker, the Rangers made one last bid in the final seconds to tie this game, but the closest they came was Del Zotto hitting the crossbar for the second time in the period.
The offensive action in this game certainly picked up from Game 1 on Saturday, with the Rangers registering 28 shots and the Capitals 25. As did the intensity, which brought along a little more character and snarl to the series, which we expected to see eventually.
But, at the end of the day, it comes down to converting on opportunities in yet another defensive game, and I personally believe blowing the powerplay opportunity to open the second period really hurt the Rangers. That was their chance to tie the game and also build on the momentum they already had, but they wasted it with a rather pathetic attempt with the man advantage. Meanwhile, you had the Caps convert on two mental mistakes by the Rangers and then later a powerplay. In a nutshell, that's basically what this game came down to.
Aside from the first period, the Rangers did not play half bad tonight. In fact, I will go as far as to say that they were even the better team of the two in the tilt. The top two lines were very effective at times on the forecheck, rookie Chris Kreider again had a solid game, Marian Gaborik, at least in my eyes, showed some improvement, Ryan Callahan was all over the place, Brian Boyle was strong in his return, so there's no one to really call out here. Sure, you can blame Bickel and Lundqvist for the goal in the first, but it surely wasn't their fault that the team didn't score on the powerplay to open the second.
To put it into the words of the coach, "we win and lose as a team."
They will now need to enter the Verizon Center in D.C. on Wednesday and win as a team in order to respond to this letdown of a loss on home ice tonight. This isn't a situation that the Rangers are not familiar with, so there's nothing to worry about. Like I said, they were the better team, so they are sure to respond in Game 3.
STAT PACK
- Artem Anisimov played just 4:56 tonight; Stu Bickel just 3:07.
- Brad Richards led the team with 5 shots on goal, while Del Zotto was a close second with 4.
- Marian Gaborik picked up an assist to go along with his pair of shots, but was a minus-1 on the night.
- Del Zotto had two assists in 25:08 of ice time.
- Ryan McDonagh led the team in minutes played with 25:30.
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