A perfect game…for 55 minutes and Rangers lose to Washington 2-1
The New York Rangers have made a lot of progress this season. They have improved their defense beyond expectations and this game was perfect example. Nursing a slim one goal lead, they absolutely shut down the Washington Capitals, the top offensive team in the East, for 55 minutes but then gave up two quick goals to Alex Ovechkin and lost 2-1.
The Rangers held the Caps to only 18 shots on goal. With less than five minutes left in the game, Washington had one shot on goal, but they scored on the next two shots and of course, it was Ovechkin, one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history. The goals were practically identical, as they both came off shots that ended up bouncing right to the Russian who just had to put them into the open net.
The Rangers deserve a lot of credit for keeping shots away from their net, but shots on goal is a deceptive number. Overall, the Rangers finished with 22 scoring chances at even strength versus 20 for the Capitals. The Caps had seven high danger scoring changes compared to five for the Rangers. Shot attempts for the two teams was practically identical. The Rangers blockedd 16 shots compared to nine for Washington.
After the game, the talk was about the positives with Jacob Trouba the most optimistic. He said “We had some breakdowns, overall we liked the way we played for the most part, we had a couple rebounds in front the last give minutes, it’s tough to lose that way, I don’t think we’re looking at it that way, we’re looking that we played pretty well for 55 minutes.”
Chris Kreider was less satisfied. “It’s tough to stomach, cause we felt like we played pretty well. Definitely a lot of good takeaways. It’s disappointing, but we have to bounce back and play the same way tomorrow. ”
A fatal flaw
The reason the Capitals won is because they never stopped taking shots and crashing the net. While the Rangers did a great blocking shots and keeping them away from Georgiev, eventually two got through to the chaos in front of the net and Ovechkin was there to slam the puck home. Twice.
Kreider spoke about that. ‘It was kind of like deja vu on that second goal. Pretty identical. Pucks and bodies to the net, that’s a recipe for scoring goals, something we could’ve done a little bit more of tonight,…I thought we did a pretty good job. We have to continue to try to get there, get pucks there, and make it hard on their goaltender like they did on ours. ”
And that is the frustration for Ranger fans. While Ovechkin is famous for his wicked one timers he is just as effective going to the net and using his big body to get to rebounds. It’s a weakness for this Rangers team.
The Rangers had two chances to put the game away on two third period power plays and they got only three shots on goal, all stopped by Vitek Vanecek. No one went to the front of the net and caused any havoc in front of Vanecek. They keep looking for the perfect pass and shot and that’s why it took 1:20 to even get a shot attempt on their second man advantage. And 32 seconds after that power play ended, the Capitals tied the game.
The bottom line is despite all of the great defensive work, the Rangers still blew a third period lead and lost a crucial two points, slipping further behind in the playoff race as the clock keeps ticking.
Here is a full video recap of the game.
Notes on the game
Alexandar Georgiev had a solid game though he was well protected by the defense.
Atta boy Georgiev! pic.twitter.com/2z8jAdVaJl
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 19, 2021
He didn’t have any spectacular stops and on the first goal he had no chance. It came off a shot that was two feet wide of the net, hit Evgeni Kuznetsov in the leg and bounced to Ovechkin. On the second goal, Georgiev made the stop on John Carlson‘s slap shot, but put the rebound right out in front of the net and was out of position to block the rebound. The fact is he allowed two goals on 18 shots and had some issues controlling rebounds all game.
Vitek Vanecek won for the first time against the Rangers and he kept the Capitals in the game the first two periods. He made 32 saves and allowed only the one power play goal. The Rangers had 10 high danger scoring chances and he stopped them all.
It didn’t end as well for Kris Knoblauch and the fill-in coaches as they lost after the 9-0 blowout. For a while it looked like he was headed to their second straight shutout, but that came crashing to a halt in the third period.
A lot of attention is being paid to
‘s open ice hit that laid out Alex Ovechkin in the second period.
Lindy is what you call a hockey guy. pic.twitter.com/EcVolVT2b4
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 20, 2021
It was the kind of hit that Ovechkin is famous for, but the Capitals acted like he had been mugged and tried to goad Lindgren into a fight. It ended with Brendan Lemieux and Brenden Dillon getting unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalties.
Earlier Lindgren was hit in the face by an errant puck while seated on the bench and had to go for repairs.
Hit in the face with a puck? Not a problem
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 20, 2021
Ryan Lindgren is a GAMER pic.twitter.com/y0a2u2wGVx
The 18 shots on goal tied the lowest total of the season. The Rangers had held the Boston Bruins to 18 shots in a 4-0 win earlier this month. The difference was that the Rangers had held the Bruins to only 26 shot attempts at even strength while in this game, the Capitals had 47 shot attempts. The 26 shot attempts was their best effort of the season, while they have held teams to fewer than 47 shots attempts 17 times this season.
Artemi Panarin scored his eighth goal on a feed from Ryan Strome while on the power play. Panarin had four shots on goal, while Strome led the team with five. That line was the best for the Rangers by far.
By killing the only penalty against them, the Rangers have now killed 63 of their last 69 penalties.
When Ovechkin scored his second goal, it was the first time the Capitals had the lead against the Rangers in three games. That’s 176:20 that the Rangers either led or were tied with the Capitals.
You have to go back to February 2018 to find a game when the Capitals were held to fewer than 18 shots on goal.
Ovechkin now has a five game goal scoring streak and has scored 38 goals in 62 games against New York.
My three Ranger stars of the game
- Artemi Panarin played a dynamic game, controlling the offense when he was on the ice and scoring the only Ranger goal. He was second among forwards in ice time and had four shots on goal.
- Ryan Strome teamed with Panarin on the top line for the Rangers. He had a team high five shots and played over 20 minutes.
- Ryan Lindgren gets the third star for excellent defensive work and that massive hit on Alex Ovechkin. Despite being on ice for both Washington goals,Adam Fox and Lindgren were tasked with stopping the Backsrom-Ovechkin-Oshie line and they did an excellent job until that that breakdown in the third period.
The official three stars
- Vitek Vanecek
- Alex Ovechkin
- Artemi Panarin
East Division
This was the only game featuring teams from the East on Friday. The Rangers remain five points behind fifth place Philadelphia and eight points out of the final playoff spot occupied by Boston. Both the Bruins and Flyers have a game in hand on the Rangers.
Thursday’s scores
Capitals 2, Rangers 1
Standings
1- Washington 30 20-6-4 44 points
2- Islanders 31 19-8-4 42 points
3- Pittsburgh 30 18-11-1 37 points
4- Boston 28 16-8-4 36 points
5- Philadelphia 28 15-10-3 33 points
6- Rangers 29 12-13-4 28 points
7- New Jersey 27 10-13-4 24 points
8- Buffalo 29 6-19-4 16 points
What’s next
The Rangers get right back to action on Saturday night in the second of a back-to-back series with the Capitals. The big question is who will be in net for the Rangers. There were some indications that Igor Shesterkin was getting close to returning.
More. Which Ranger goes in the expansion draft?. light