The Washington Capitals defeated the New York Rangers on Tuesday at Capital One Arena by a score of 5-3. Alex Ovechkin notched a pair of goals and Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas also tallied en route to the Caps’ sixth win of the season.
LINEUPS
The Capitals started Logan Thompson (3-0-0, 3.28 GAA, .884 SV%) in net while the Blueshirts countered with stalwart Igor Shesterkin (4-1-1, 2.16 GAA, .926 SV%, 1 SO).
CAPITALS
Aliaksei Protas-Dylan Strome-Alex Ovechkin
Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana-Mike Sgarbossa-Andrew Mangiapane
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh
Jakob Chychrun-John Carslon
Martin Fehervary-Dylan McIlrath
Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Scratches: Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre, Alexander Alexeyev
RANGERS
Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider-Mike Zibanejad-Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kaako
Adam Edstrom-Sam Carrick-Matt Rempe
K’Andre Miller-Adam Fox
Ryan Lindgren-Jacob Trouba
Braden Schneider-Victor Mancini
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
1ST PERIOD
Before the scoring was even opened, Capitals defenseman Dylan McIlrath and Rangers forward Matt Rempe dropped the gloves, reigniting memories of fisticuffs during their time in the American Hockey League.
Alex Ovechkin would build upon the momentum created by McIlrath’s fight by notching his third of the 2024-25 campaign and 856th career goal; Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas recorded the assists on the play.
The hosts’ early lead would last just 15 seconds before Will Cuylle drew the Blueshirts even on an assist from Kaapo Kaako.
Ovechkin would strike again moments later, putting his fourth of the season and second of the night past Shesterkin to give Washington the lead once more and the game’s third goal in 1:47. Protas and Strome recorded the assists on the goal.
Connor McMichael potted his fourth of the season with 11:02 left in the opening frame, redirecting the puck past Shesterkin to give Washington a 3-1 lead; Taylor Raddysh and Rasmus Sandin recorded assists on the goal.
The first frame ended with the host Capitals on top of the Rangers 3-1 and commanding in the shots on goal department, 19-5. The Capitals also lost defenseman Jakob Chychrun to a lower-body injury.
2ND PERIOD
The wild offensive night continued early in the second as Chris Kreider scored on the power play just thirty seconds in, cutting the deficit to one; Mike Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck recorded assists.
Exactly four minutes later, Aliaksei Protas picked up his third point of the night and second goal of the season, giving the Caps a two-goal lead for all of 14 seconds, as Filip Chytil notched his fourth goal of the year to cut the home team’s lead yet again.
The two goaltenders would be able to breath a sigh of relief as the buzzer sounded at the conclusion of the second, with Washington holding on to a 4-3 lead on the scoreboard and 14-8 in shots (33-13 in total).
3RD PERIOD
Unlike the first two frames, the final 20 minutes were much less eventful. The Capitals would add an empty-net goal from Nic Dowd to seal the victory in the Nation’s capital.
The Caps finished with not only the victory, but a commanding 46-19 SOG advantage, and dominating in the faceoff dot (61.8%-38.2%). The Caps’ power play went 0-4, while New York capitalized on one of three chances.
