Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren, bruised and bloodied as always, stepped up and bodied Alex Ovechkin harder than the Capitals star has probably been hit in the last decade, knocking him down and breaking his stick in the second period of Friday night’s matchup in Washington.
So Ovechkin naturally turned around and found a way to score two goals in the second-half of the third period, single-handedly willing his team to a 2-1 win over the Rangers.
The Blueshirts held a 1-0 lead until 13:18 remained in the third period, but the 35-year-old Ovechkin found himself in the right spot at the right time — and he buried two goals from the same spot in the span of in 3:09 to flip the script.
It was the Capitals’ first win over the Rangers in their three meetings this season and it extended their winning streak to seven games.
“He’s a Hall of Famer, he’s always finding ways to score goals,” the Rangers’ acting head coach, Kris Knoblauch, said of Ovechkin after the loss, which dropped the Blueshirts to 12-13-4.
“As for the hit, I thought Lindgren made a tremendous play, it was clean,” Knoblauch said. “I haven’t seen the video of it yet but I didn’t think there was any issues, it’s just their team standing up for their star player. That’s what Lindy does, it wasn’t targeting a star player, he wasn’t headhunting, he just was playing the way Lindy does. In my opinion, it was a good clean hit.”
Said Ovechkin, who is 174 goals away from Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL record: “It was a great hit, obviously. He hit my stick. It got broken. It was good hockey, it’s hockey.”
Washington has outscored its opponents 29-14 during its current tear through the East Division, but the Capitals’ toughest matchup over that span was most certainly the Blueshirts.
From top to bottom, the Rangers are figuring out how to be hard to play against.
If Wednesday’s historic 9-0 win over the Flyers was a fluke, the Rangers followed it up with a strong road effort against the first-place team in the East.
“It’s tough to stomach because we felt like we played really well, I mean, we played a really good road game,” Chris Kreider said. “They jump on two big opportunities during the third, it was close throughout. You have to limit chances from very good offensive teams so definitely a lot of good takeaways.”
The Rangers are having an offensive resurgence, and it can be traced back to when star winger Artemi Panarin returned to the lineup last week following an extended leave of absence due to a political hit piece from Russia.
After scoring a power-play goal in the first period Friday night, Panarin now has at least one point in each game since his return to the lineup on March 13. He has three goals and four assists, for seven points, in the Rangers’ last four games.
The Rangers have done more than just settle into an offensive groove. They have a newfound tenacity, spirit and will to win. Maybe the disappointment of a sluggish start to the season has caught up with them, or their top guns are just finding their games at the same time, but this is not the same team that showed up on opening night in January.
The Rangers, led by the Wolf Pack coaching crew for the second straight night with the Blueshirts’ staff in COVID-19 protocol, held Washington to fewer than 10 shots on goal in each period. After facing a mere five shots in the first period, and then six in the middle frame, the two goals from Ovechkin spoiled the Rangers’ efforts.
Ultimately, Washington was outshot 33-18 and still managed to pull out the win.
“Ovechkin’s a goal scorer, he’s obviously known for those pretty goals from the outside but he does a good job of getting to the net and getting his big body there and was able to pot those two obviously very similar goals on both,” Kreider said. “It’s something we get to go back and look at and remedy going into [Saturday’s rematch].”
