Capitals Win a Wild Game in New York
Both Washington and New York came into tonight’s game after being shutout in their previous games. However, that was not the case tonight as the offenses broke out for both teams in an epic battle. The Capitals were playing down multiple men the entire way and still came away with the 6-3 win.
In the first period, Nic Dowd put the Capitals up early with his 10th goal of the season. That goal marked the first time in Dowd’s career that he recorded double-digit goals in a season. Following Dowd’s goal Michael Raffl had a beautiful deflection to set up a Conor Sheary goal to put the Capitals up 2-0.
Although the Capitals had a good start, the Rangers responded with three straight and then things got ugly. Tom Wilson was in the middle of a large scrum in the second, where he slammed Artemi Panarin on the ice. Wilson was given 14 penalty minutes, four for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct. He would return in the third.
Late in the second, Garnet Hathaway tied the game up with his sixth of the season, giving the Capitals some momentum heading into the third. Then, in the third, the Capitals tallied three goals to pull away. Daniel Sprong tallied his 12th of the season, Nicklas Backstrom tallied his 15th and Wilson, with an empty-netter, his 13th.
With the win, the Capitals eliminated the New York Rangers from playoff contention and moved into a tie for first place with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Washington will be back in action again on Wednesday (5/5) against the New York Rangers.
