Capitals Rally in the 3rd to Beat the Rangers in Saturday Matinee

The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals started off an action-packed slate of hockey on Saturday afternoon, as all 32 teams were in action today. The Capitals were coming into the game against the Rangers, having to deal with the absence of captain Alex Ovechkin, due to a lower-body injury that he had been dealing with the past week. Despite the loss of Ovechkin, the Capitals managed to rally in the third period, to come away with a 3-2 comeback victory. With the win, the Capitals improved to (20-14-6) for 46 points, as they sit in a tightly contested wild-card race. Meanwhile, the Rangers dropped their fourth straight game, as they fell to (26-13-2) for 54 points and remained in first place in the Metropolitan Division.

The Rangers would strike first at 13:23 of the opening period to take a 1-0 lead, as defenseman Adam Fox attempted a pass to Mika Zibanejad, but the puck went off the skate of a Capitals’ defender to give Fox a wide-open net on the left side, as goalie Charlie Lindgren was out of position. At 17:50, the Capitals would tie the game up at 1-1, as right winger Anthony Mantha would score on a breakaway pass from Connor McMichael. In the second period, the Rangers would retake a 2-1 lead at 5:15, as Fox would get his second goal of the game on a slap shot that went through traffic after a turnover by McMichael. 

In the third period, the Capitals would begin to seize control of the game, which led to right winger Nic Dowd notching the game up at 2-2, after deflecting a shot by Evgeny Kuznetsov into the back of the net past goalie Jonathan Quick. Less than two minutes later, T.J. Oshie would give the Capitals their first lead of the game, after a backdoor pass from Dylan Strome was tapped in by Oshie, to ultimately give Washington the victory over the Rangers. The two teams will now head up I-95 to Madison Square Garden to finish up a back-to-back stretch on Sunday afternoon.