Capitals Score Six Unanswered Goals, Blast Rangers 7-3

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers 7-3 on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. Trailing 3-1, the Capitals scored six unanswered goals to send the Garden faithful home early, and in a sour mood. The Capitals offensive onslaught, started Friday night versus Tampa, continued, and expanded in this one.

(Photo: @washcaps)

The starting lines for the Capitals:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Johansson-Backstrom-Williams
Chimera-Beagle-Wilson
Laich-Latta-Burakovsky

Defneisve Pairs:
Schmidt-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Chorney

The Rangers were without Kevin Klein and Dan Girardi for this contest. The healthy scratches for the Caps were Stanislav Galiev and Connor Carrick. Brooks Orpik missed tonight’s game, his 18th consecutive game since sustaining a lower body injury in Detroit on November 10th. The Capitals did not skate today due to an event at MSG, however the Rangers were able to hold a morning skate. Holtby vs. Lundqvist in net.

QUICK TAKES
The Capitals struck first, but then gave up three goals in a five-minute span in the first period. The Capitals would once again explode offensively in the second period, scoring four goals in the middle frame. That made it 9 goals in the last three periods of play. The Capitals would continue their offensive outburst with two more goals in the third period, making it 6 unanswered goals in the game, and 11 goals in the last four periods of play. Henrik Lundqvist would only last two periods in this contest before being replaced. Justin Williams had a pair of goals.

The Capitals were called for the game’s first penalty when Justin Williams was tagged with a hooking call at the 4:21 mark of the opening frame. The Capitals did a good job of limiting the Rangers zone time, with the Rangers generating very little in the way of chances. The middle of the period saw a good deal of end-to-end play, with SOG at 4-4 through the midway point of the period. Justin Williams would get the first tally for the Capitals on a redirect from Taylor Chorney.

J.T. Miller would knot-it back up 1:39 later when he slipped by Matt Niskanen in a 1-on-3 situation, and slid it past Holtby to make it a 1-1 game at 13:42.

John Carlson blocked a shot, but the Rangers Chris Kreider would corral the puck, and slide it around Holtby for the Rangers second goal at 15:44, scoring just 2:03 after the game-tying goal.

The Rangers weren’t through, adding a power play goal by Dan Boyle at 18:03. The period would end with the Rangers leading 3-1. The Rangers led in shots on goal 15-7 for the first period.

The Capitals opened the second period with a wrister Marcus Johansson that hit the cross-bar. The Caps would get their first power play on a hooking call on Oscar Lindbergh at 0:53 mark of the middle frame. The Caps had excellent control and offensive zone time, with Ovechkin getting off several blasts from the “Ovi spot”, but the Rangers held the fort, with no damages done. Evgeny Kuznetsov would finally cut into the Rangers lead on a knock-in from in front of the net at the 5:25 mark of the middle frame.

T.J. Oshie would tie the game at 3-3 on a feed from Nicklas Backstrom at 7:01

Alex Ovechkin would give the Caps a 4-3 lead on a power play goal from the “Ovi Spot” at 11:03 of the second period.

Justin Williams would add another goal for the Caps with one minute left in the middle frame on a power play goal. The Period would end with the Capitals leading 5-3. Shots on goal were even at 24-24 through the first two periods. The Capitals have scored 9 goals in the last three periods of play.

The Rangers would pull Henrik Lundqvist from the game at the start of the third period and replace him with Magnus Hellberg. The Rangers would go on an early power play, but Jason Chimera would get a break-away shortie to stretch the lead to 6-3 at the 2:26 mark of the final frame.