Rangers defender Ryan Lindgren, bruised and bloody as usual, stepped forward and gave Alex Ovechkin a body stronger than the Capitals star was probably hit in the past decade, knocking him down and breaking his club in the second Friday night fight period in Washington.
So Ovechkin naturally turned around and found a way to score two goals in the second half of the third period, alone allowing his team to beat Rangers 2-1.
The Blueshirts maintained a 1-0 lead until 13:18 remained in the third period, but Ovechkin, 35, found himself in the right place at the right time – and scored two goals from the same position in the period at 3:09 to reverse the script.
It was the Capitals’ first win over Rangers in their three meetings this season and extended their winning streak to seven games.
“He is a member of the Hall of Fame, he is always finding ways to score goals,” said Rangers acting coach Kris Knoblauch of Ovechkin after the defeat, which left the Blueshirts for 12-13-4.
“As for the blow, I thought Lindgren made an incredible move, it was clean,” said Knoblauch. “I haven’t seen the video yet, but I didn’t think there were any problems, it’s just their team defending their best player. That’s what Lindy does, he wasn’t aiming for a star player, he wasn’t hunting heads, he was just playing the way Lindy does. In my opinion, it was a good clean blow. “
Said Ovechkin, who is 174 goals from Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record in the NHL: “It was a huge success, obviously. He hit my club. It broke. It was good hockey, it is hockey. “
Washington surpassed its opponents by 29-14 during its passage through the Eastern Division, but the most difficult confrontation of the Capitals in that period was certainly the Blueshirts.
From top to bottom, the Rangers are figuring out how to face a tough opponent.
If the historic 9-0 win over the Flyers on Wednesday was a fluke, Rangers moved on with a strong road effort against the top-placed East.
“It is difficult to swallow because we feel that we played very well, I mean, we played a very good road game,” said Chris Kreider. “They took advantage of two great opportunities during the third, it was very close. You have to limit the chances of very good offensive teams, so definitely a lot of good results ”.
The Rangers are having an offensive resurgence, and this can be traced when playmaker Artemi Panarin returned to the team last week after an extended leave due to a political hit from Russia.
After scoring a power-play goal in the first half of Friday night, Panarin now has at least one point in each game since his return to the squad on March 13. He has three goals and four assists, seven points, in Rangers’ last four games.
The Rangers did more than just settle at an offensive pace. They have a newfound tenacity, spirit and will to win. Perhaps the disappointment of a slow start to the season has affected them, or their best players are just finding their games at the same time, but this is not the same team that appeared on their opening night in January.
The Rangers, led by the Wolf Pack technical team for the second consecutive night with the Blueshirts team under the COVID-19 protocol, kept Washington with less than 10 shots on goal in each period. After facing just five shots in the first period, and then six in the middle, Ovechkin’s two goals marred Rangers’ efforts.
Ultimately, Washington was defeated by 33-18 and still managed to win.
“Ovechkin is a top scorer, he is obviously known for his beautiful goals from outside, but he does a good job of reaching the net and putting his great body there and was able to pocket those two obviously very similar goals in both,” said Kreider . “It is something that we have to go back to and look at and remedy when [Saturday’s rematch]. “