3 Rapid Takeaways from the Rangers' 3-2 OT loss against Washington

With a 3-2 overtime loss against the Washington Capitals, the New York Rangers playoff race only gets harder. Let's break down all the things that went down for the Rangers at MSG on Wednesday night.
New York Rangers v Washington Capitals
New York Rangers v Washington Capitals | Patrick Smith/GettyImages

Despite Washington being called for its league-high 11th too many men penalty early in the second period, Wednesday night saw a real tough point left on the table for the New York Rangers.

Let's breakdown exactly how the Rangers got their latest loss with three key takeaways from the matchup.

1. The Tie that Slipped Away

The Rangers were just over nine minutes away from securing an inspiring victory over the first-place Washington Capitals. But leading 2-1 midway through the third period, the Rangers allowed Alex Ovechkin to tie the score with a power-play goal. The goal put Ovechkin is now just 10 goals away from breaking legendary Wayne Gretzky's all-time scoring record.

Then with 53 seconds remaining in overtime, Tom Wilson finished off another Capitals comeback victory, beating goaltender Igor Shesterkin for his 28th goal of the season.

Vincent Trocheck touched on the emotions after the rangers' overtime loss postgame in the locker room.

"[The] guys are disappointed, but I think there's a lot of good things to take from that game," Trocheck said. "A really good hockey team and I thought we played really well."

2. The Failed Three Game Win Streak

With the loss, the Blueshirts (31-26-5) yet again failed to win a third consecutive game after back-to-back shutout victories over the most recent contests against the Nashville Predators and New York Islanders. The Rangers have not won three games in a row since Nov. 14-19 — around four months ago.

3. Postgame Quotes

How did the Rangers players and head coach Peter Laviolette react to this latest loss? Overall, they were fairly contest with how they played.

Here are some of the postgame quotes.

"We just played the No. 1 team in the East. Played a solid game against them up until the final whistle," defenseman K'Andre Miller said. "[We] came up a little short but we did a lot of good things and we can take a lot from this game."

"It's a tough loss. It was a big game. They're the top team in the east right now," Laviolette said. "I liked everything we were doing in the third up until they got on the power play."

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