Rangers lose fourth in a row after blowing third-period lead vs. Capitals
Rangers center Vincent Trocheck goes around the net with the puck as Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren and defenseman Martin Fehervary defend during the second period of an NHL game Saturday in Washington. Credit: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta
WASHINGTON — The last time the Rangers played in the nation’s capital, they fell behind early, were never in the game and were shut out by Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren.
Saturday afternoon was a different story.
The Rangers appeared to be in complete control until the middle of the third period, when goals by Nic Dowd and T.J. Oshie 1:53 apart allowed the Capitals to hand the Blueshirts a crushing 3-2 defeat at Capital One Arena.
It was the Rangers’ fourth loss in a row.
“It was kind of a one of those low-chance games,’’ said Jonathan Quick, who made 18 saves. “Both teams played really well defensively, kept a lot of shots and chances to the outside. They make two good plays there with [13] minutes left [and 11] minutes left . . . and then we just didn’t have the answer to that down the stretch.’’
The Capitals’ back-to-back goals came right after Chris Kreider took a pivotal slashing penalty that wiped out a Rangers power play and gave the Caps an eventual power play. The Rangers killed off Kreider’s penalty, but Dowd’s goal came 10 seconds after it expired. The Capitals grabbed the momentum and Oshie scored the go-ahead goal soon after.
The Rangers had 10 shots on goal in the third period but couldn’t score against Lindgren, who stopped 25 of 27 shots.
The Rangers are 26-13-2 and barely hanging on to first place in the Metropolitan Division. They will host the Capitals on Sunday in the back end of a home-and-home at Madison Square Garden.
Asked about his level of concern as his team continues to lose games, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said, “We’ve got to win a game tomorrow. That’s the objective tomorrow, is go back [to New York] and win a hockey game.”
The Rangers, who are 3-4 in the front end of back-to-backs, are 6-0 in the back end.
“There is no panic in this locker room,’’ said Quick, who is 9-3-2 but 0-3-1 in his last four starts. “There is urgency. And we try to play with urgency even if we’ve just won four in a row, right? So I don’t think it’s going to be anything other than normal. We’re going to continue to work, continue to try to get better as the season goes along.’’
Things started off well for the Rangers as defenseman Adam Fox scored in the first and second periods to give the Blueshirts a 2-1 lead entering the third period. It was his second career two-goal game.
But at 6:36 of the third, Evgeny Kuznetsov carried it behind the Rangers’ net, came out and flipped a high backhand shot that Dowd batted in to tie the score at 2-2.
Then Oshie drove to the back post and got his stick on a pass from Dylan Strome for a goal at 8:29 that gave Washington its first lead.
The Capitals (20-14-6) won without star forward Alexander Ovechkin, who sat out with a lower-body injury. Washington did have Tom Wilson back in the lineup. He missed Thursday’s game against Seattle with a broken nose.
Fox, who went 19 games without a goal from the end of October to the beginning of January, has four goals in his last four games.
His first goal came at 13:23 of the first period and gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. He retrieved the rebound of his own shot and fired a sharp-angle effort past Lindgren (25 saves). It was the Rangers’ first goal in two games against Lindgren, who shut them out in the teams’ first meeting on Dec. 9.
Washington tied the score on a goal by Anthony Mantha, who beat Quick to the backhand on a breakaway at 17:50. Defenseman K’Andre Miller’s shot was blocked and Connor McMichael flipped a saucer pass over Miller’s stick and hit Mantha up the middle.
Fox’s second goal, at 5:15 of the second period, put the Rangers up 2-1. He picked up a failed clearing attempt by McMichael just above the right circle and fired a shot that Lindgren never saw as he was screened by Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
