Washington Capitals win in Overtime against the New York Rangers
The Washington Capitals had a late comeback for a win against the New York Rangers to close out their home and home series with them. The Capitals won both games against the Rangers, but had to make a comeback to get the win.
The Capitals did start the game off letting in the first goal of the game after Kevin Hayes beat Braden Holtby to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Later that period Nicklas Backstrom made a beauty of a pass to Andrea Burkovsky near the end of the period to make it a 1-1 game after the first period.
The second period was a true scoreless grit period with a lot of hits and some chippy play after whistles. One play involved John Carlson and Ranger forward Jimmy Vessey got into a pushing contest
The third period was a lot like the second period, but involved scoring. Ranger forward Ryan Spooner beat Holtby with force minutes left in the game to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Moment later the Capitals pulled Holtby, and Lars Eller past the Rangers young defensemen for a tip in goal.
Later in overtime Evgeny Kuznetsov showed us his silky mitts blowing past all three Rangers players on the ice and sniped Lundquist for a Caps win in overtime 3-2.
Braden Holtby returned in net tonight and looked like his old self again. He looked confident, didn’t fight off shots and challenged shooters. He stopped 35 shots, made a lot of big saves and was a major contributor in killed a four minute penalty.
With an injured Philipp Grubauer and a Braden Holtby potentially back to playing great hockey like he has in the past do the Capitals have a goalie controversy? That will be up to the coaches, but it is good knowing the Capitals do have the best goalie duo in the NHL.
Another topic of discussion is the great play tonight from Shane Gersich. Jakub Vrana was a healthy scratch for Gersich to get into the lineup for his NHL debut and looked great.
Gersich showed great speed and hands with great grit along board play showing a lot of NHL potential. He was one of the NCAA’s top players the past two season playing for the University of North Dakota, and proved tonight he could play at the NHL level. He played eight minutes tonight with three shots on net.
The Washington Capitals also honored Rockville native and gold medalist Hayley Skrupia who was at the Capital One Arena tonight. Hayley was a member of the U.S. women’s hockey team that won gold, and is the first member of U.S. hockey from the state of Maryland.
