Rangers 3, Capitals 1

On a mild spring evening in our nation’s capitol, the Rangers encountered a Capitals team that looked as if some of the players were ranking members in the House and Senate. After trailing very briefly at the start of the game, the Rangers never looked back.

Carlson (1) got the Caps their only goal at 05:34 of the first period on a long distance shot below the blue line and above the slot. It did not look deflected and Shesterkin made no move on it, doing his best Statue of Liberty. Between periods commentators claimed that Phil Niekro was resurrected and slapped a knuckler towards the goal. 🤷‍♀️

The Washington lead was short lived, a total of 34 seconds. Kreider (2) with a tip-in from BFF Zibanejad (3) and Roslovic (2). With the game tied at one at 07:58, Ryan Lindgren took an intentional cross checking penalty behind the net in order to get the Rangers PK unit on the ice. A wise choice as it took only ten seconds for Goodrow (1) to beat Charlie Lindgren from the slot off a Trocheck (3) pass past the very tired looking Ovechkin. Trouba (1) also got an assist on the play. 2-1 NYR after one.

Before moving on, once again Rempe was in the mix and causing chaos on the ice. This time with a booming hit on defenseman van Riemsdyk on the back boards. Unfortunately for Rempe, the puck was long gone and he was rightly written an interfernce citation. Unfortunately for van Riemsdyk, Rempe has 5″ and 55 lbs on him. Looking at the play in slow motion, some may argue for additional discipline because there was contact with the head. However, the primary contact was pretty much all of van Riemsdyk – his head between the numbers and Rempe’s armpit and his shoulder hip/butt high. Rempe did not appear to get elbows or stick high and van Reimsdyk definitely did not look both ways before crossing the street. The wildcard is that van Riemsdyk did not return to the game so who knows what the NHL will do.

The second period was a scoreless affair until at 15:22 Trocheck (2) played role reversal on the PP with Kreider, Zibanejad (4) and Fox (1) with the assists, on a nifty give and go. 3-1 NYR and so it would end after a scoreless third period.

Shesterkin would go on to play a fine game after the sleepy goal to start the game and, overall, the Rangers played a smart game, limiting what Washington could do and just waiting to capitalize on their mistakes. As to the Caps, they would be better off giving Ovi a blanky and sending him up to the press box for a nap.

Game Notes: Kreider recorded his 67th career playoff point (42 goals, 25 assists in 110 postseason games) and tied Rod Gilbert (34 goals, 33 assists in 79 playoff games) for third place on the Rangers’ all-time playoff points list. Shesterkin (16 playoff wins) tied John Davidson for fifth most in team history.

Game 4 is Sunday night in DC at 8:00 PM EDT on TBS (not TNT), truTV, MAX, MNMT, MSG and MSGSN. Expect another bruiser of a game!