The Rangers will return to MSG Monday with their series with Washington tied 2-2 thanks to a couple of mistakes and an interesting penalty call.
Surprisingly, New York came out flat against Washington despite their emotional win on Wednesday. The Caps dominated the first period, beating the Rangers to the puck and out-shooting them 14-3. A terrible pass attempt by Chris Kreider setup Alex Ovechkin perfectly and he buried a slapper to put Washington up 1-0.
Things were reversed in the second period as the Rangers were hustling and winning the battles while the Caps looked flat. Artem Anisimov tied things up for New York with a nifty wrist shot just one minute into the period. Nicklas Backstrom dug the puck out of the corner, passed it along the boards and set himself up perfectly in front of the New York net to wrist in a goal and put Washington back on top. But, Anisimov and Gaborik combined to take advantage of a complete defensive breakdown by Washington and Gaborik's second goal of the series tied things up at 2.
And that's where things remained until Carl Hagelin was called for slashing at the 13:45 mark of the third period. Hagelin was whistled for banging a stick loose an almost identical play to one where Brian Boyle had suffered the same fate, but the hit on Boyle was not penalized while Hagelin's infraction was called. The Caps converted on the ensuing power play and while the Rangers had some chances in the final minute, they could not get the equalizer and lost 3-2.
